Day 26: The Chocolate Cube at Park Avenue Summer is BTS

It takes a lot of spunk to demolish what could easily be the pièce de résistance at the Museum of Modern Pastries – this miniature Richard Serra of chocolatey indulgence – but it’s an act of destruction that rewards more sweetly than the sound of crème brulee’s brittle crust cracking. The Chocolate Cube, Park Avenue Summer’s signature dessert, is not above taking you on such a guilt trip.

It teases you at first, of course: A square of chocolate mousse and cake encased in a hard chocolate shell accented by two large cinnamon crisps and a scoop of dark chocolate gelato on top of a chocolate cookie. After my friends R.C. and R.S. told me that Matt Lauer (!!!) goes to Park Avenue Summer quite a lot, I thought brunch couldn’t have been better. And then they bring out the Chocolate Cube, a concoction of Richard Leach, the James Beard-award-winning Pastry Chef. In the end, I’m left thinking, in this case, that the fall from grace is well worth the sinful pleasures.  What could possibly be better? Hmm…Matt Lauer covered in chocolate syrup on my dessert plate.