For the best after-dinner dessert
When you walk by Bar Cocoa, located Uptown in the street-level
corner of e Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte, the window display makes it
difficult to keep going. e Ritz's stop-you-in-your-tracks presentation
caught the eye of Crystal Broadbent, a graduate of Johnson & Wales
University, who has since become e Ritz's pastry chef.
"It's a new kind of dessert that not many shops have," Broadbent says.
"It's a very upscale style." e coconut cake and red velvet cupcake
are the first to fly out of Bar Cocoa's cases. ey recently inspired the
bakery to refocus its menu to Southern desserts presented with an
upscale attitude. e bakery is gradually introducing these new items.
"It's the classics you know, like banana pudding, and we're taking them
up a step," Broadbent says.
Bar Cocoa's Cocoa Lab gives customers an opportunity to step inside
the bakery's kitchen and take a class alongside professional chefs. e
best part: Students get to eat their own creations.
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To learn more about Charlotte eateries and attractions,
visit charlottesgotalot.com
AUGUST 2016 23