accessAtlanta

A CITY REALLY HASN'T ARRIVED until it has its own sense of dessert. Cafes that focus on and highlight the talents of a gifted pastry chef but also offer small savory plates, a deep wine list and signature cocktails have been sorely lacking in the ATL. Paris has Ladurée. New York has Payard, the Russian Tea Room. San Francisco has Citizen Cake. Boston has Finale. But Atlanta ...

Becky Stein/SPECIAL (ENLARGE)
Wonderful little bites of chocolate heaven come in the form of caramel ganache, a rich caramel blended with milk, dark and bitter chocolates.
Becky Stein/SPECIAL (ENLARGE)
The refreshing watermelon soup is served in a white bowl with basil sorbet and poured tableside with a siphon.
Becky Stein/SPECIAL (ENLARGE)
The cafe also sells its own brand of European pralines.
Becky Stein/SPECIAL (ENLARGE)
Along with all the sweet offerings, the Chocolate Bar serves rich cheeses, along with wines and cocktails.
MOST POPULAR STORIES Atlanta's fireworks options sparkle Big. Bang. Boom! Cool as a Cucumber: A Summer Cocktail Sampler How and where to have a blast on the Fourth Sandra Bullock movie takes over Atlanta private school
EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS MOST POPULAR

Last year, when Chocolate Pink Pastry Cafe arrived on Juniper Street, I finally was hopeful that Atlanta had arrived as a grown up. This tidy, modern pink-and-brown toned pastry shop serves the most well-made tarts, pies and cakes in the city. There are tiny tables where you can sip illy coffee and feel, well — like an adult. Reminiscent of the shops in Paris, Christian Balbierer's beautifully crafted petits fours are the result of a well-trained hand, each its own little flower arrangement on the plate.

And now in Decatur, two talented chefs, Aaron Russell and Nick Rutherford, have teamed with owner and former nurse Karen Britain to create the area's very own reason for eating dessert first, The Chocolate Bar. Russell's résumé includes pastry chef at Seeger's and the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead under chefs Bruno Menard and current Dining Room chef Arnaud Berthelier; Rutherford was sous chef at Seeger's and worked as chef de cuisine at Quinones at Bacchanalia.

The small space is bathed in warm wood tones (very chocolate-y), there's a small bar and even tables to sit outside on Decatur's main drag, West Ponce de Leon.

And if life were perfect, this is how I would eat all the time.

Start with a "culinary cocktail," so named because each borrows an element from the kitchen as well as the bar — the refreshing watermelon spritzer is like drinking a fizzy piece of super-sweet, ripe watermelon topped with sparkling cava or champagne. It's like drinking summer. The muskiness of muscavado sugar darkens the flavor of a passion fruit mojito while a tequila "old fashioned" is fiery with agave nectar infused with serrano chile. Or choose a wine from the more than happy selection — short, but deep.

Then move to nibbles of well-procured charcuterie — rich sopressata, dry-cured bresaola, finocchiona and Molinari salami and Black Forest ham smeared through grain mustard — plus bites of Sweet Grass Dairy's creamy lumiere cheese and a bite of savory manchego with cooked pears and bitefuls of marinated olives.

But save room for what's really important — dessert. Don't look for homey, fudgy, sloppy or gooey here. And don't try this at home. These lovely selections are delicately made, easy on the eyes and full with flavor — the triple threat in pastry arts.

Tiny macaroons and pâté de fruits round out the evening's offerings of petit fours, an indulgence when eaten with a tiramisu martini (admittedly passé, but one sip and you'll be smitten).

But it's ditties like the caramel ganache, a rich caramel blended with three types of chocolate — milk, dark and bitter — with chocolate sorbet, a whisper of salt and a bit of sponge cake that will leave you swooning. Watermelon soup is similar to the cafe's drink, but served in a lovely white bowl with basil sorbet and poured tableside with a siphon. At the bottom is a surprise of smooth, soft frangipane (an almond paste cake). A pecan tart needs a better, butterier crust, but is a nutty blast with butterscotch ice cream.

In addition to all this, the café sells its own retail brand of European pralines (chocolate candies), exhibited in an immaculate case beside the bar. Montélimar nougat (a French specialty chocked with nuts), port wine bon bons made with milk chocolate and tawny port and dark and milk couvertures laced with silver tequila are don't-misses.

That silly New-Age adage that life is short, so eat dessert first goes without saying. At the Chocolate Bar, there's really no reason to eat anything else.