Conscious Choice: Hot Chocolate — So Much More Than Dessert

December 2005 | Conscious Dining

Hot Chocolate — So Much More Than Dessert

By Janine MacLachlan

Hot Chocolate is a great place to embrace the philosophy of that famous saying: “Life is short — eat dessert first.” This eatery’s chef/owner Mindy Segal, after all, gained renown as the pastry chef at MK, and is recognized for innovative interpretations of sweet classics like Snickers bars.

If consuming dessert first feels like eating backwards, at least take a look at the menu (or the take-out case) to plan a strategy the leaves room for the sweetness in life. The dessert menu lists comforting warm brioche doughnuts ($8) with hot fudge, and others ($10) such as organic carrot cake, huckleberry turnover and a banana creation called Volume III, with bananas covered in bittersweet chocolate dipped in toasted almonds, roasted banana semifreddo, which means “semi-frozen,” a banana tuile crispy cookie and warm butterscotch infused with cardamom. Wow. If that doesn’t do it, there’s also eight ice creams and sorbets ($2 a scoop) including sweet corn, salted caramel and Concord grape, or milkshakes ($5) including vanilla bean, Mexican coffee or stout and caramel.

One fall showcase is an apple pot pie with smoked apple ice cream. For the ice cream, apples from Seedling Fruit or Mick Klug, both venerated Michigan orchards, are roasted with Gunthorp bacon to impart a smoky flavor. The bacon is removed before the apples are pureed for the ice cream, resulting in a subtleness that keeps you coming back for another bite.

Sharing Strategy Makes for More Tastes

As far as the regular menu goes, it’s apparent Segal takes local seasonal cooking seriously, although I was surprised to see asparagus listed on the menu since that is typically the first vegetable of the spring. Nonetheless, she clearly knows everyone on my personal rock-star farmer list, plus a few I haven’t discovered yet.

If you have enough people, simply order the entire starter menu and pass the plates. The mussels ($12) are served in a subtle green curry broth with lemongrass. Sourdough bread sticks ($5) are served with small crocks of Parmesan, garlic and herb butter and pumpkin puree. The roasted baby beet salad ($10) is served with shaved fennel, goat cheese and toasted walnuts on top of curly frisee greens, and the autumn salad ($10) is a joyful mélange of green beans, roasted corn, spaghetti squash and purple hull beans with mâche, the green of the moment that’s great to enjoy in a restaurant because it requires so much washing at home. Mâche grows very close to the ground and is essentially sliced from the soil — I’m always happy when someone else gets out the grit.

More Cheese, Please

The cheeses can be starters, pre-dessert courses, or the main event. Segal is a chef ambassador for Wisconsin cheese, which means she gets to go on field trips to visit artisan cheese-makers in the dairy state. Segal and five fellow ambassadors are set to cook a beer and cheese dinner at the James Beard House in New York City, a mecca of food enthusiasts and showcase for high-powered cooking talent. At Hot Chocolate, the cheese selections ($6 for one selection, $3 each for additional choices) feature Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Mike Gingrich’s award-winning cheese from Uplands Cheese Company in Dodgeville, Wis., as well as cheese from Hooks, the Laack Cheese Company and Bass Lake Cheese Factory. And some cheeses come with a bit more embellishment ($10), like the cheddar melt on pumpernickel with shaved apple salad, or tiny baked lady apples filled with Canasta Pardo, dates and cinnamon with an endive and pecan salad, or a poached pear tart with blue cheese, candied walnuts and frisee salad.

And although I gravitate toward lots of smaller starters and cheese plates to taste and share, the main courses are certainly no slouch. They include pork chops ($20) from Gunthorp Farm in Indiana, Lake Superior whitefish ($22), about as local as we can get for fish, and a veggie selection of cheese in brioche ($13), a contemporary interpretation of brie en croute, that classic triple cream cheese wrapped in puff pastry and baked to golden puffiness.

Hot Chocolate is open for weekend brunch, with selections like sandwiches ($10) with prosciutto, duck or asparagus with a fried egg, and more breakfast items like those fabulous warm doughnuts, brioche French toast ($10) with Plapp Family farm sausage or buttermilk pancakes ($9) with bananas, butterscotch and chocolate chip streusel. And the weekday lunch menu features interesting sandwiches and, of course, more dessert.

The Final Word

Clearly, the food at Hot Chocolate makes it well worth a visit. But service and setting also score major “brownie points.” The room is warm, with walls in cocoa shades ranging from bittersweet to a paler café au lait, and the staff dons a range of chocolate-hued attire. The staff obviously benefits from sessions where Segal says they “sit and talk about food and service.” I found everyone to be conscientious, knowledgeable and obviously having a good time. My time at Hot Chocolate made me wonder if I should try to get a job there.

Hot Chocolate, 1747 N. Damen Ave., 773-489-1747. Lunch 11:30 a.m.–2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; brunch 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; dinner 5:30–10 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday, 5:30-midnight Friday and Saturday. Closed Monday. Smoke-free.

Janine MacLachlan is a freelance writer, cooking school owner and farm groupie whose search for well-raised food is a passion.

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