“All our truffles have a different flavor because of where the cocoa
beans come from,” the woman standing behind Chocolopolis’s table at the
Seattle Chocolate Salon enthusiastically explained. “What do you taste
in that one? It’s from Colombia, which is a region obviously known for
its coffee.”
She watched as I put the small piece of Colombian chocolate truffle
in my mouth. I told her it had a slight coffee flavor, and she smiled
and nodded, satisfied that I could distinguish the difference. But I
was lying. I couldn’t taste the difference between that piece of
chocolate and the piece of chocolate I ate just 20 seconds earlier,
which apparently came from Ecuador and had tinges of grapes,
blueberries, and orchids—whatever orchids taste like.
After 45 minutes at the Chocolate Salon, I had sampled dozens of
varieties of chocolate from local companies like Chocolopolis, Theo,
Oh! Chocolate, Intrigue, and Crave. By this point, nothing could wash
away the thick coating on my tongue. Chocolate just tasted like more
chocolate—not espresso, not cassis, not salt and/or pepper. Just
chocolate. The Chocolate Salon didn’t give me a new appreciation for
all the chocolate companies that exist right here in the city
limits. Instead I slumped away with the urge to vomit
chocolate-vomit all over the sidewalk.
It was way too much of a good thing. And seeing it all there in one
room, then putting it all into one ultimately pained stomach, I
realized that right now, Seattle itself has become a perfect example of
Too Much of a Good Thing.
Over the past six months, the city has seen more specialty sugar
shacks pop up than you can shake a Pixy Stix at. For example: Despite
an already crowded pool of cupcake options (do I even need to run down
the list?), the Yellow Leaf Cupcake Company opened shop in Belltown in
May. Curio Confections, a charming and creative candy store, and
Fainting Goat, a family-run gelato shop, both opened in May (in the
U-District and Wallingford, respectively), and we also recently got
frozen custard, times two—Peaks in Ravenna and Old School on
Capitol Hill. Two other ice-cream places less than a month old: Pretty
Kitty Organic Ice Cream in the University District and Bluebird
Homemade Ice Cream & Tea Room on Capitol Hill (both have beer
flavors on the menu for the adult sweet tooth).
Sweets-slinging businesses that have been around for a year or more
are flaunting their success by opening additional locations: Molly
Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream celebrated its first year of business
recently with a new store on Capitol Hill, and Cupcake Royale opened
(its fourth location!) one block away mere hours ago. In May,
Wallingford’s Trophy Cupcakes branched out to University Village. Full
Tilt Ice Cream of White Center will have another shop as of later this
month in Columbia City. Then, of course, there are all the chocolate
companies. But I can’t even think of the chocolates right now.
And now, terrifyingly, these places are joining forces. Last month,
Cupcake Royale featured a cherry cupcake with Theo’s cacao nibs
sprinkled on top. Molly Moon’s is currently offering a sundae made with
a High 5 Cutie Pie, tasty fruit pies made here in Seattle by Dani Cone,
owner of Fuel Coffee.
In March, Christine Haughney wrote in the New York Times:
“The recession seems to have a sweet tooth. As unemployment has risen
and 401(k)s have shrunk, Americans, particularly adults, have been
consuming growing volumes of candy, from Mary Janes and Tootsie Rolls
to Gummy Bears and cheap chocolates, say candy makers, store owners,
and industry experts.”
Everybody’s blaming the economy. “You can’t underestimate the
feel-good factor of baked goods and sweets, and they are a far more
accessible indulgence than, say, buying a new car or even a new pair of
shoes,” says Jessie Oleson, founder of Cakespy.com, a local blog dedicated to the
latest baked goods and candy trends. “Also, you have to consider the
effect of all of the recent layoffs in the city—you’ve got all of
these people who have time to kill but not much money, so they will go
to a bakery, and get a fairly inexpensive cupcake or pastry and coffee,
and hang out and use the Wi-Fi. I was recently talking to a girl who
had been laid off a few months ago, and when I asked what she’d been
doing with her time, she said, ‘I’ve been going to Molly Moon’s a
lot.'” When I interviewed Molly Moon recently about her expanding
ice-cream empire, she said, to paraphrase: It’s the economy,
stupid.
Jody Hall, founder of Cupcake Royale (which started in Seattle in
2003), isn’t worried about all the competition—she thinks there’s
room for everyone. “The fact that Seattleites have an increasingly
diverse group of dessert spots to pick and choose from doesn’t make me
nervous,” she said by e-mail. “In addition to being affordable, our
cupcakes will always be delicious, all natural, and nostalgic, and that
really resonates with the neighborhoods we’re a part of. Five years of
Seattle cupcake goodness is something I’m really proud of.” And new
kids on the block Yellow Leaf Cupcake Company are still going
strong—they were selling out of cupcakes on a daily basis after
opening in the spring, and business has hardly slowed down. They credit
their Belltown location for their success.
Is this some conspiracy against the weak-willed sugar lovers in the
city? Is this the natural waxing of yet another trend that—like
dot-coms, like Starbucks, like beards (god willing)—will wane
again?
Right now, while everything’s new (and we all still fit into our
jeans), we love it. But eventually, we’re going to eat our last
chocolate. Or cupcake. Or ice-cream cone. It will all start to taste
the same, and eventually, we’re going to want to barf. At what point
will Seattle get a collective sour stomach and turn on all the
treats? 
There are a lot of places in Seattle that sell nothing but dessert. This may be due to tough economic times (despite the fact that the trend started well before September, 2008). Wow!
Would it really have been so hard to offer an opinion on these places, or even to compare expensive cupcakes, ice cream, and chocolates with the stuff you can get at QFC? I’m not normally someone to complain about the pointlessness of a Stranger article, but this one really does deserve to be called out for having so little to say.
If it had a point, outside of a thin candy shell, then it wouldn’t appear in The Stranger. I’m one to thrive on sarcasm, but when we have news orgs who spend hours telling us about people we don’t care about in Town X getting murdered, auto accidents and other salacious news items, the collective conscious isn’t there to do anything thoroughly. I mean I laughed at the title because if I see one more cupcake place in this town I’ll scream, but beneath all the sarcasm it basically gave the advice to open a sweet shop. People apparently will buy ice cream and cupcakes en-masse in a recession.
I’m in the specialty food industry (specifically baking sugars and decorations) and business hasn’t slowed at all in the past year, if anything we’re growing! These businesses are helping the local economy tremendously. Thanks to this article, I have several new leads for potential customers.
It’s an interesting and noticeable trend, and a horrible reflection on the future of the bodies of Seattlites.
This city is set to become a land of lardos, if it isn’t one already.
if every sweet shop that opens is independent, and a corresponding franchised sweet shop (cheeseball factory, i’m looking at you) dies upon said opening, then balance is kept while the economy localizes.
but i think we’ll just get fatter.
“‘In addition to being affordable….'”
hahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! And the Iraq war brought freedom.
I just wish that Coco La Ti Da could have hung on just a little bit long for the dessert craze to take hold. Anyone know where Sue McCown went after the restaurant closed?
For some reason, I feel that if I were unemployed and/or cash-strapped, the last thing I would be doing was buying high-priced, pointless sweets.
Have any of these people attributing their success to “the recession” actually have anything to back it up? Maybe they should hand out questionnaires to their customers and find out who, exactly, is spending money at their shops.
My sister used to work at Cupcake Royale. Getting great coffee makes it a place I’ll regularly go…but not for cupcakes. I’ve been to a Cupcake Royale several times in the last six months, but I can’t remember the last time I had one of their cupcakes. (Their currant scones, however – I had one of those last week!)
I’d love to see more savory items on the menus of these places. And not just savory croissants. Sometimes, when I go into a coffee shop, I’m looking for lunch, not empty carbs.
@1 & 2: Megan’s covered the cupcake comparison territory and written about Molly Moon—see Related Articles above. Now she’s over it. (At least for now.)
I’m a sweet addict in general (chocolate specifically), and I’m already reaching that breaking point Megan is predicting. Part of the problem is that, in order to distinguish themselves, a lot of these outfits make stuff that’s just . . . weird. Take Molly Moon’s, please! (Ba-dum-bum.) I’m a huge ice cream freak, eat it almost every day, but the salty caramel is like sucking a salt lick. Interesting and crazy and out there at first, but after a few bites, blecch. Most of their other flavors are undersweetened to the point of boredom.
And some of these places just aren’t ready for prime time: I tried Blue Bird, and, well, the strawberry had no taste whatsoever, and the ale flavor was mostly just disgusting.
But Megan, you can stop hating on beards now. Their ubiquity is the best thing about Seattle, grooming-wise.
Just for the record, the best cupcakes in Seattle right now, that I’m aware of are at Eats Cafe on Barton between West Seattle and White Center. Hands down the best red velvets around… far better than the bland sweetness of Cupcake Royal and Trophy Cupcakes.
Whoever smashed those two gorgeous ice cream cones together for that pic: I hope that red background is a plate, and I hope you had some spoons handy! Best wishes.
Beards must go!
The best cupcakes in Seattle are Joe Randazzo’s.
@9 I know exactly what you mean! sometimes, when I go to a strip club, all I want is to get my car washed, but there is not a SINGLE strip joint in Seattle that’ll do so for me…
I LOVE FULL TILT!!!!
The Stranger hates local independent shops that aren’t dive bars or trendy restaurants.
Or is it that cupcakes were *SO* 2007 to you hipsterz that it is now time to turn on them? Cupcakes were the new french fries!
Tell us, tell us, what are we supposed to like next?!?!
The charm of a place like Molly Moon’s was it’s exclusivity. You had to want it bad enough to go Wallingford and stand in line for 30 minutes. Once these places start multiplying more and more, the novelty will wear… probably sooner than we think. It’s too bad that this type of thing always happens. We can’t just have a good thing, we have to beat it into the ground until we are all sick of it.
I’m sorry, but you explained the cupcake phenomenon, but NOT the candy one. There is no place to get candy by the pound in West Seattle, and I would absolutely love it. Some people like a little sweet treat without having dairy, and without buying a 75-cent junior mint box or something.
More candy stores, please!!!!
p.s. And I’m not talking about chocolate. Chocolate tastes (and looks) like shit.
I cannot wait for the explosion of chubby hipsters. Maybe then I can find some damn skinny jeans in a size 18.
Ice cream and veal….there really is no difference.
Cruel and unnecessary.
Why don’t we just open more Kinko’s and Bank of America stores in the cupcake locatations instead of the current bakerys and sweet stands?
It seems like that would solve our problems.
@7 – Sue was working for starbucks corporate for awhile, creating new products for them, and then I think she went exclusively to consulting. I know that she consulted for Cupcake Royale in updating their cake recipe to hold up better over the course of a day.
The weird thing is that of those places I’ve tried, none are very good! I haven’t wanted to return to any of them. And I love ice cream, etc.
What’s up with that?
I didn’t read this article, but my vote for best ice cream shop is Bluebird by far. The peanut butter with hot fudge is delicious, and I like the soft consistency. Molly Moon’s has a weird denseness that is not pleasing to me.
Plus, they have boardgames, and they play good music (the Kinks when we were there).
Unfortunately it is also right next to my Yoga studio so I walk by it every day.
and pizza places. enough.
Dude, you really need to spend a lot more time at Curio if you think it’s just a candy shop. Boo! It deserves a lot better than to be lumped into this article. Besides candy and amazing creative baked goods of all sorts, she also makes a damn fine quiche. Also, she has a good wine selection.
I am fortunate to live nearby. Also, it’s really nice to see more exciting stuff moving into the northern end of the Ave.
Somebody mentioned too many pizza places and I agree. Too many mediocre pizza places. When I went home to Minneapolis, I specifically ate at a favorite place because I knew they could satisfy my hunger. It was even fresh and tasted better than anything I’ve had here.
Loads of mediocre. Seattle’s new mantra.
I used to have respect for Megan’s opinions, but that stopped the second this article went to press. I can’t think of a more ridiculous article of “too many sweet shops”. Seriously, you want Seattle to stop opening up sweet shops and such. You’ve obviously become way too jaded of a human to not appreciate these delicacies. I have to agree with a previous poster who said something to the effect of “don’t let my foot get stuck in your ass as I kick you out of my way in line.”
This conversation about there being too much of anything is interesting. I was excited about Molly Moon coming to Cap Hill. But I live in South Seattle, and I would be excited about any of these type of places coming there. We finally got a Starbucks on MLK last year. That should show how behind the times South Seattle is in getting anything that isn’t a Pho restaurant or a taco bus.
Let’s see:
Environment- Bad
Banks- Bad
Wall Street- Bad
Health Care- Bad
Cars- Bad
Bikes- Bad
Democrats- Bad
Republicans- Worse
Government- Bad
Corporations- Bad
TV- Bad
Hollywood- Bad
Hipsters- Bad
Eating- Bad
Stranger- awful
Ice Cream- Bad
Cupcakes- Bad
Candy- Bad
Sloggers- Worst
etc… and on and on…
34’s got it spot-on.
On a semi-related note, I felt that Megan Seling’s stomach hasn’t produced a particularly good first article. That’s who wrote it, in the first place, anyways. Boo-hoo, I don’t like candy. Let’s shut down a candy boom in Seattle because I want to vomit chocolate.
Oh, wait, idea: Let’s shut down the candy boom in Seattle simply for BEING a candy boom. To answer your question, Seling, no, this isn’t a conspiracy against the weak-willed lovers of anything. This isn’t a conspiracy against anything at all. This is you getting your panties in a knot over some dessert shops. This is you REALLY getting your panties in a knot. Over some *dessert* shops.
Alright, on a serious note, do you proof-read, I mean, do you proof read at ALL? If anything, this entire article could have easily been replaced with something that mattered, even in the slightest bit. Why turn into Queen Bitchalot just because you wrote this in a candy-induced diabetic coma? If anything, you brought it down on yourself, and you’re making a goddamned mountain range out of a molehill.
You’re a big girl now and you need to start doing your duty as a journalist, which is not just to spit out any old bullshit you happen to whip up in your spare time. Get out there and bring us something that will actually DO something, not musings about how much you dislike chocolate after eating it for 45 minutes straight. Grow the fuck up and quit wasting our time.
Yeah DIABETES!! Woohoo! Yeah HFCS!! WOOt!! Uhm, YEAH.
*SLUMP*
*sugar coma*
Thanks Ms. Seling: Didn’t find this a waste of time in the least: these places needed some extra press/PR (perhaps some of you commentors misunderstand how newspapers work?): the sooner we all get exposed to the PixieStik companies and get the fuck over it, the better.
Dick’s has a perfectly tasty and reasonably portioned ice cream cone for 90 cents. Fuck Ms Moon and her charging extra/separate for the cone.
Remember the last big recession inspired sugar coma? 2001-2002 was all bout da Donuts!! (KrispyCreme news coverage anyone?). Before that/since then was sugar-infused iced ‘coffee’ drinks from starbucks & such. In 92 it was “the Mocha”.
Yawn. Yet, we keep being blind, so the article has need:
It’s a sad cycle, and it’s a very american phenom. We sabotage ourselves. We buy/consume to “make ourselves happy”. And we tend to buy shit that’s not good for us or for our world.
fyi
:
I’m calling it:
The next big thing will be “sugar-coated breakfast cereal Bars” where the decor is giant blown up CALVIN & HOBBES comics, and you can get your Capt Crunch or BooBerry on with chocolate milk for a sugar high, while watching Starblazers or Josie and the Pussycats on the big screen (or/and play 2600 or Vic20 games)!
oh, and lovenote to conspiracy theorists:
I wonder if Molly Moon’s investment team (see: yelp.com) has any dentists on board?
Pretty Kitty Ice Cream in the U-District is bullshit. They have close to porn grade posters of hot chicks pushing ice cream but stick your head in the shop and its nothing but dudes working in there, WTF! Talk about your deceptive advertising.
she just said what i was thinking, settle down you naggers
don’t forget about frozen custard on pike & 14th. delicious. anyway, i have faith in my fellow seattlites that they will only indulge in moderation. seattlites are smart folks ya know!!
i’m crazy when look the picture
Word on 34-36. Thanks for a less than Jake sarcastic article on nothing more than sweet shops that already are getting too much publicity. Besides being pointless (which is sometimes alright in this paper, but only because it’s free) it wasn’t even funny. Besides the barfing part, which apparently was the only thing she could think of (and repeated, oh I don’t know, five times) to waste space in this long line of tubes we call the internet, there was nothing worth finishing the article for. But I did, just so I could make sure that my bitching was validated.
What exactly is the Seattle Chocolate Salon and how do I get to go?
Then you’d HATE it in New York.
Btw, I feel the same way about wine.
@ 20 I know this thread is dead, but if you read this- the best place for chocolate in West Seattle is Husky Deli in the junction.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/husky-deli-seatt…
“Right now, while everything’s new (and we all still fit into our jeans), we love it. But eventually, we’re going to eat our last chocolate. Or cupcake. Or ice-cream cone. It will all start to taste the same, and eventually, we’re going to want to barf. At what point will Seattle get a collective sour stomach and turn on all the treats?”
Sorry Megan – love you – but, uh, is Seattle over coffee yet? We seem to have a thing for pricey-for-their-size treats. (And cupcakes pair oh so well with coffee…)