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Where to stop for a sweet bite
Transcendently delicious desserts come in many forms. While many Twin Cities restaurants have sensational dessert menus, it’s important to know where to go when dessert isn’t just the finale to a meal — it’s the main course. (Also in the realm of treats and sweets, check out the best in local bakeries, doughnuts, ice cream, pies, and cakes.) Here’s where to stop for a sweet bite around Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Note that these restaurants are listed geographically.
Read MoreIt’s all about the pies at Tara Coleman’s bakery and breakfast spot. The banana cream is topped with little moguls of mascarpone; the chocolate mouse is drizzled with caramel and topped with a salty pretzel crunch. Hot Hands also serves milkshakes with a whole slice of pie blended in.
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Take a budget-friendly trip to France with Rose Street Patisserie’s delicate cakes, tarts, eclairs, and macarons. While the flavors change with the season, the ethereal Paris-Brest, filled with hazelnut buttercream, never misses.
Yum Kitchen’s claim to fame is its Patticake, a towering triple-layer chocolate cake spread with vanilla buttercream. Also on the menu are mini key lime pies, cupcakes, and an assortment of bars and cookies.
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Chocolate lovers will appreciate Cafe Latte’s turtle cake and fudge cake. For something fruity, try the ultra-citrusy lemon torte. Don’t overlook the cheesecake, which is miraculously smooth from edge to center.
Pastry chef Marc Heu, who trained at a 300-year-old Parisian patisserie, serves elegant pastries — think towering croquembouche, creamy Basque cheesecake, vanilla Saint Honoré sculpted like a blooming peony — at Selby and Dale in St. Paul.
Cossetta, St. Paul’s beloved Italian marketplace, has a killer pasticceria. Stop by for tiramisu, cannoli, cream puffs, and homemade gelato.
Stop by El Burrito Mercado for a slice of tres leches or a chocolate flan, made with custard layered over rich chocolate cake. The bakery section offers all kinds of panes dulces.
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South Korean bakery chain Tous Les Jours offers an array of treats, from milk bread to macarons to green tea cake, many of which fuse classic French pastry technique with Asian flavors (particularly Korean and Japanese).
Pastry chef Shawn McKenzie recently garnered a James Beard nomination for her work at Café Cerés. Her chocolate zephyr cookies, made with rye flour, have a subtle malty bite; her mandarin olive oil tart, topped with slices of candied orange, have notes of hazelnut, rosemary, and brown butter in the crust.
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Stepping into Marissa’s Bakery feels a bit like stepping into another world, one where a wood-fired brick oven churns out fluffy conchas and sopapillas all day long. But the real gems are the churros, made hot and fresh for $1 each. Take a whole paper bag home.
Peninsula serves an array of Malaysian-style sweets, from mango sticky rice to roti durian (flaky roti layered with durian puree) and pulut hitam (a creamy pudding of black sticky rice and coconut milk).
The Copper Hen’s chocolate chip skillet cookie, topped with ice cream and caramel, comes hot from the oven. Other highlights are fruit hand pies, S’mores pots de creme, and the famous mason jar cakes, some of which are served with a little pipette of liquor.
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Pastry chef Lutunji Abram is best known for her sumptuous, Southern-style peach cobbler. But her Elliot Park bakery also serves treats like like vegan sweet potato pie and peanut butter fig cookies baked with Irish sea moss.
Pastry chef Jasmine Weiser’s desserts are miniature works of art. A tropical Swiss roll is layered with mango cream and topped with a neat cap of coconut mousse; a berry pavlova is filled with bay leaf ganache. There are ice cream sundaes, cookies, and bars on the menu too.
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Pop into Filfillah for a bite of irresistible knafeh, its crispy phyllo exterior soaked in sweet simple syrup, cheesy insides oozing out onto the plate.
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It’s all about the pies at Tara Coleman’s bakery and breakfast spot. The banana cream is topped with little moguls of mascarpone; the chocolate mouse is drizzled with caramel and topped with a salty pretzel crunch. Hot Hands also serves milkshakes with a whole slice of pie blended in.
Take a budget-friendly trip to France with Rose Street Patisserie’s delicate cakes, tarts, eclairs, and macarons. While the flavors change with the season, the ethereal Paris-Brest, filled with hazelnut buttercream, never misses.
Yum Kitchen’s claim to fame is its Patticake, a towering triple-layer chocolate cake spread with vanilla buttercream. Also on the menu are mini key lime pies, cupcakes, and an assortment of bars and cookies.
Chocolate lovers will appreciate Cafe Latte’s turtle cake and fudge cake. For something fruity, try the ultra-citrusy lemon torte. Don’t overlook the cheesecake, which is miraculously smooth from edge to center.
Pastry chef Marc Heu, who trained at a 300-year-old Parisian patisserie, serves elegant pastries — think towering croquembouche, creamy Basque cheesecake, vanilla Saint Honoré sculpted like a blooming peony — at Selby and Dale in St. Paul.
Cossetta, St. Paul’s beloved Italian marketplace, has a killer pasticceria. Stop by for tiramisu, cannoli, cream puffs, and homemade gelato.
Stop by El Burrito Mercado for a slice of tres leches or a chocolate flan, made with custard layered over rich chocolate cake. The bakery section offers all kinds of panes dulces.
South Korean bakery chain Tous Les Jours offers an array of treats, from milk bread to macarons to green tea cake, many of which fuse classic French pastry technique with Asian flavors (particularly Korean and Japanese).
Pastry chef Shawn McKenzie recently garnered a James Beard nomination for her work at Café Cerés. Her chocolate zephyr cookies, made with rye flour, have a subtle malty bite; her mandarin olive oil tart, topped with slices of candied orange, have notes of hazelnut, rosemary, and brown butter in the crust.
Stepping into Marissa’s Bakery feels a bit like stepping into another world, one where a wood-fired brick oven churns out fluffy conchas and sopapillas all day long. But the real gems are the churros, made hot and fresh for $1 each. Take a whole paper bag home.
Peninsula serves an array of Malaysian-style sweets, from mango sticky rice to roti durian (flaky roti layered with durian puree) and pulut hitam (a creamy pudding of black sticky rice and coconut milk).
The Copper Hen’s chocolate chip skillet cookie, topped with ice cream and caramel, comes hot from the oven. Other highlights are fruit hand pies, S’mores pots de creme, and the famous mason jar cakes, some of which are served with a little pipette of liquor.
Pastry chef Lutunji Abram is best known for her sumptuous, Southern-style peach cobbler. But her Elliot Park bakery also serves treats like like vegan sweet potato pie and peanut butter fig cookies baked with Irish sea moss.
Pastry chef Jasmine Weiser’s desserts are miniature works of art. A tropical Swiss roll is layered with mango cream and topped with a neat cap of coconut mousse; a berry pavlova is filled with bay leaf ganache. There are ice cream sundaes, cookies, and bars on the menu too.
Pop into Filfillah for a bite of irresistible knafeh, its crispy phyllo exterior soaked in sweet simple syrup, cheesy insides oozing out onto the plate.
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