That tickle at the back of throat? That's your sweet tooth talking again. No pathetic attempt will make it go away. Chewing sugarless gum, or chomping on ice? Nope. Daily chromium picolinate supplements? Ha. Believe us, self-deprivation is hapless because when your sweet tooth bites back—and it will—it's vicious.
If it's sugary, sticky and completely against your dietary religion, Metromix has always got some candy in our pocket for you. We're like your visiting grandma, except hotter and with a better wardrobe. With the growing number of new bakeries, gelaterias, chocolateries, pâtisseries, cupcake shops and Pinkberrys to fatten up the city, you'll find us and this ongoing guide at the front of the queue, ready to get our diabetes on. In the meantime, put the pedal to your insulin-secreting mettle at any of the toothsome places below. And let your dentist know that Metromix sent you.
Feed: your sweet tooth
Time to schedule your next trip to the dentist
By Jiyeon Yoo, Metromix
December 1, 2008
Post-cupcake craze
Four portable pastries vying for your sweet tooth
Photographic proof: Bakesale for Barack
Spaceland hosts a sweet little fundraiser
Navigating: birthday cakes for procrastinators
Calendar challenged? We’ve got you covered
Anatomy of: red velvet
Before the sugar-fueled crimson tide, there was Auntie Em's and her white-capped confection. Anatomy of L.A.'s classic cupcake is now in session.
Anatomy of: gelato
Gelato Bar's Alessandro Fontana mixes up frosty magic
Anatomy of: kettle corn
Pop secrets from L.A.’s corn kingpin
Scoops
712 N. Heliotrope Dr. - Los AngelesRemember that crazy peanut-butter-chocolate-Jack Daniels concoction you tried to make in your dorm room? Tai Kim, sole flavor engineer of Scoops, has done that and done it better than you, my friend. While your mischief resulted from a drunken night and a half-empty fridge, Tai’s flavor profiles are flights of avant-garde culinary fancy. What else would you call it if you got foie gras and Sauternes at your disposal? But even with such high-falutin’ ingredients and the blog explosion of Scoops’ popularity, the "single scoop" price of $2 still gets you two scoops of two different flavors.
Jin Patisserie
1202 Abbot Kinney Blvd. - VeniceIf macarons are familiar to you, thank Jin's Kristy Choo who expresses her artistry in couture-worthy pastries and confections. (If they aren’t, thy sweet tooth hath been deprived indeed). Cakes come in miniature, individual sizes—a design which is not only elegant but also quite considerate of your vanity. While chocolates are gussied up with lavender, passionfruit, ginger and the like, we highly recommend the variation with fleur de sel—a dash of sea salt that heightens the essence of the cocoa. Welcome to the ranks of chocolate connoisseurship.
Mikawaya Mochi
118 Japanese Village Mall - Los AngelesWe know, we know. Fugetsu-Do is right across the way, and we don’t deny that the mochi there is equally "quality." But when it comes right down to it, Mikawaya has mochi ice cream. In fact, this Japanese-American company—founded in 1910, no less—invented this most amazing fusion confection. We bow down.
Milk
7290 Beverly Blvd. - Los AngelesDoes it do our bodies good? That’s what we’d like to think every time we veer off Beverly Blvd. and find ourselves staring at the humongous menu of ice cream flavors, parlor treats of every ilk, and baked goods from cookies and blondies to tarts and the signature blueberry-filled blue velvet cake. Milk even hand-dips its own Eskimo bars and sandwiches various ice creams between wafer-thin macarons. We hear that there’s a food-food menu too—not that we can account for it; we’ve only had frozen lunches and dinners there.
Teuscher Chocolates of Switzerland
9548 Brighton Way - Beverly HillsIf you're ready to graduate from Godiva, you might as well go where big-wig foodies go. Teuscher does not make its chocolate in-house; even better, the rich chocolates are shipped in from Switzerland. The signature champagne truffles are most popular—and most expensive—for a reason. They are absolutely sublime. Just close your eyes to the sticker shock and hand your credit card over. The boozed-up chocolate will take the pain away.
Leda's Bake Shop
13722 Ventura Blvd. - Sherman OaksCupcake shops may be as omni-redundant as a B-list tartlet in this town, but Leda's takes the indisputable cake for being the cutest of them all. The cakes are itty-bitty—you could pop them whole in your mouth if it weren't for the twee decorative toppers: sugar flowers, stars, buttons and hearts so adorable and Sanrio-worthy, they look almost too precious to eat. Good thing we say "almost."
Sherry Yard, L.A.'s ultimate pastry chef
How do we love thee, Miss Yard? Let us count the ways. You're adorable, ebullient and gracious to any slavering fool who wants to shake your magic-filled hands. Your desserts are divine yet surprisingly familiar—we can't wait to get your new cookbook for Christmas. You are the only way we can afford to sit in Spago for an hour—"coffee-and-dessert" is the best trick in the book. You love pink, not just to promote breast cancer but always. And you wore a freakin' tiara when you won your James Beard award. Respect.
MMX LA @ the Boule Atelier launch
The city's lovely, Tiffany-blue gift-box of a store is on the verge of exploding into a sugary fiefdom of its own. Boule on La Cienega has picked up a fancy Frenchified surname and moved into a larger "atelier" space just three doors down. Our wee camera captured the overflowing sweets and libations at the fabu launch party, and even caught a couple of foxy firemen before calling it a night.
Cupcake crawl
Cupcakes are getting all up in everybody's business. No one's safe—not even self-loathing rockers who call themselves Supercreep. Local music artist and Metromix friend Jody Delli Santi hopped on our cupcake-fueled train to check out as many sweet shops as a functional pancreas would allow. Witness the ensuing hyperactivity.
Alternative fall desserts
Listen, just because it’s Thanksgiving doesn’t mean you have to eat (just) pumpkin pie. We've gathered the season's most unusual and inspiring beauties to prove that there is life beyond the frozen pie and aerosol can of whipped cream. And if it just doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving without spiced squashy puree, take a look at some of the sexy makeovers our little pumpkin gets this year.
Summer freezes over
Who are we kidding? Seasonality is so overrated. Quit the 'plaining about the ungodly sunshine in Los Angeles and embrace the fact that it's ice cream-eating weather 365 days a year. Flip through our summer '07 romp to our favorite frozen treats digs—it'll be the most snow you'll see all winter long.
Navigating: liquid summer
Where ice blending bears fruit
Meet the L.A. ice cream men
Please do not call yourself a self-respecting Angeleno or ice cream fanatic unless you've tramped out to Alhambra on a random weekday night just to get a hit of the lemon custard-flavored treat. We talked with the Fosselman bros, who've continued the family business into the third generation, and found that Pinkberry's got nothing on the oldest ice cream shop in town—Fosselman's is about to hit its 90th-year mark. Eat that.
Froyo wars: Attack of the Pinkberry clones
First, there was ice cream. Then, there was frozen yogurt. And then, a few years ago, came a new frozen sensation called…frozen yogurt. We tasted, measured and forked over our hard-earned cash for a dozen swirls of L.A.'s finest faux-gurt just so you wouldn't have to.
Cupcake contenders: a bake-off
What happens when two cupcake shops open on the same day, at practically the same hour, on opposite sides of town? We show up to both, of course, and eat one of everything they had. Metromix's first-ever bake-off was a close one, but who was the winner? Definitely not our waistline.
Sampling: Crumbs
This New York shop claims to be the first to spark the couture cupcake craze—well, after the Sex-and-the-Slutty hos in the Manolos dipped their fingers into Magnolia, of course. Crumbs' West Coast opening proves that it's not just the cupcakes that are boulder-size: the flagship store is just a ballsy block down from frosting juggernaut Sprinkles. We put the new arrival to the test—and we think our sweet tooth lost.
Sampling: Littlejohn's
No need for this trick-or-treat nonsense. We can buy our own candy—and we'll gladly do so 365 days of the year. Littlejohn's in the Original Farmers' Market has been in the same spot for over 60 years. Every owner has been an apprenticed candymaker, continuing the old-fashioned traditions of house-made caramels, chocolate and toffee. And the English toffee is the piece de resistance in every sense of the word. Like manna from heaven, it's sweet, it's salty, it's buttery. It’s a reason to turn off the porch light and pretend you’re not home. There’s no way in hell you’d want to share this with any trick-or-treater.
American pie
Holla for olallieberry!
Think inside the box
What do you expect from a Whitman's sampler that says "I got this on my way over at Rite-Aid"? If you're going to put your love into perishable food products, you might as well do it right. Consider these sumptuous selections. Your sweetheart will thank you—that's the idea, anyway.
Fête photos: Cupcake Challenge
You can't have just one
Jiyeon Yoo is Restaurants editor for Metromix Los Angeles and literally has a sweet tooth. It talks to her everyday.
