Saturday, February 20, 2010

BudgetDate: Hot Chocolate Festival at City Bakery

Need a quick, simple "coffee" style date, but hate Starbucks? Well, for the month of February (yes, that leaves you 8 days), New York City residents are in luck, because City Bakery is having their annual Hot Chocolate Festival, featuring a different flavor of hot chocolate every day, in addition to their regular, super-thick-and-rich variety.

A single $5 cup is usually too much for most people's sweet teeth (not mine, unfortunately), but they do have smaller 1/3 cup shots for $2.50. This is perfect, as you can get one of the special flavor and one of the regular for the price of a single cup, and both you and your companion can then get a nice sample of each without going into diabetic shock.

Speaking of which, you can also get a home-made marshmallow in your cup. Now, I've been told by some people that this makes the whole thing way too sweet. These people are dead inside.

If your date doesn't want to share a cup or shots... well, after all, first dates are for weeding out the crazies, right?

Grab a muffin or biscuit ($2.50-$4.00) to go along with your chocolate delight, get some water to cleanse the palate between sips and all's good with the world.

If you don't live in NYC, I'm sure your town has some cafe or restaurant that can boast a really good cup of hot chocolate. In Philadelphia, for example, I'm told of an Argentinean restaurant that has one of the best cups in the world (We shall see.... oh yes, we shall see). Regardless, it makes for a nice, little destination event to meet someone and get to know them, whether it's for the first time, or a familiar lover who you want to see smile over a steaming cup of cocoa.

Enjoy!

(The old cups were even BIGGER.... sigh...)