Desserts at Taste of Atlanta

In Tech Square in Atlanta’s Midtown this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, you’ll find 90 of the city’s best-known and best-loved restaurants coming together for the twelfth annual Taste of Atlanta.

Tickets and more information about the festival are available on the official Taste of Atlanta website, which also features the full list of restaurants and what food they’re serving. However, there are a few offers still around for saving money on your tickets, so that's worth a Google search.

Here at SoCosmo, we’ve checked through the restaurants and eateries attending to find the sweet stuff that we know you really want. The festival, like most of its kind, uses a token system where you buy tokens from a booth in the event, and use 1, 2, or 3 tokens at the restaurant booths to buy the food you want.

Right now there are 28 dessert items announced from 18 of the vendors, so if you have a sweet tooth, this is the list you need. Sadly we can’t tell you how may tokens each item will cost, so you’re going to have to visit the booth to find out. Here is our list of the places and desserts we can't wait to try...

Atlanta Grill

The restaurant from the Ritz-Carlton will be serving Guava Fried Cheesecake.

Cafe Intermezzo

This stylish late-night spot for a great date is providing three desserts! You can choose from Oreo Cheesecake, Intermezzo Chocolate Torte, or Nutella Crepe. 

Davio's

Along with their signature gnocci bolognese, the steakhouse at Phipps Plaza brings ther A-game dessert: Sticky Toffee Bread Pudding.

EAV Graveyard

East Atlanta Village is home to some great eateries, and Graveyard Pub is a cool spot to sit and people-watch in the summer. They're bringing Mini Red Velvet Brownies with Cream Cheese Frosting.

High Road Craft Ice Cream

One of three amazing craft chilled desserts in Atlanta, along with Frozen Pints, and Honesysuckle Gelato, High Road will provide their Peach Cobbler Ice Cream Sandwich, which, if it's anything like the twist on a grilled cheese they did for the Atlanta Cheese Festival a couple of weeks ago, is sure to bee a fan favorite. They're also bringing what might be the best-sounding dessert o the weekend: Bourbon Caramel Praline Sundae.

Max Lager's

Who doesn't love Fried Cheesecake? Max Lager's, the brewpub/restaurant next to Hardy Park at Peachtree and West Peachtree, does, and that's what they'll be serving.

Seed Kitchen and Bar

East Cobb's best restaurant will be offering Tres Leches Cake with Berries and Chantilly Cream. 

Seven Lamps

On Saturday Only, Drew van Leuvan's Buckhead restaurant will be at the festival, and he's bringing Figgy Fudding with Toffee Creme. So bring your appetite.

The Spence

You'd expect nothing less than spectacular from a restaurant run by Top Chef alum, Richard Blais. The Spence delivers, with a Chocolate Mousse and Salted Almond Brittle.

Wait, this is only nine places -- what are the other nine?

Missing from this list, for the sake of brevity, not quality, are:

Honeysuckle Gelato, The Melting Pot, Milton's, Morelli's, Paschal's, Sugar Shack, Waffle House, Wrecking Bar Brewpub, Yogli Mogli.

So get yourself to Taste of Atlanta this weekend, and sample some of the best of what the city has to offer.

National Chocolate Cupcake Day

Cupcakes are ALWAYS a good idea. But finding the right place near you to enjoy national chocolate cupcake day, where the cupcakes are truly out-of-this-world, can be a little tougher...

Swing by the Atlanta Cupcake Factory in Poncey-Highlands and you'll find a ton of chocolate flavors. You can find chocolate cakes frosted with chocolate frosting, or chocolate and salted caramel, the El Diablo has chocolate frosting and yellow and orange sprinkles, or you could go for the smores cupcake or the grasshopper, based on the mint chocolate pie of the same name.

The high-end food scene in Atlanta's West Midtown, spearheaded by Anne Quatrano's Start Provisions in the West Side Provisions District, offers elegant cupcakes -- if you're looking for chocolate they have chocolate on chocolate, and smores, and both are really great choices to pair with a coffee for a mid-morning snack.

At Piece of Cake in Decatur you'll find chocolate cake frosted with chocolate or vanilla frosting. Across in Midtown, CamiCakes has a chocolate coconut pecan cupcake and an Elvis -- which is a chocolate cake frosted with banana peanut butter frosting.

But what about those of us who have food allergies, or want to make different nutrition choices? Well, Gluten-Free Cutie in Roswell has a great selection of cupcakes for the gluten-sensitive, and Dulce Vegan Bakery and Cafe in Kirkwood serves up one of the best selections of chocolate cupcakes you'll find anywhere -- German chocolate, Mexican chocolate, chocolate cookies and cream, chocolate raspberry, chocolate coconut almond...and even more.

Of course SoCosmo has chocolate cupcakes, too -- from the chocolate overload to the peanut butter chocolate and the campfire smores, to the decadent "After 5" dark chocolate ale cupcake, Fairburn has a cupcake bakery that more than holds its own against the high-rolling bakeries of Decatur and Midtown.

National Dessert Day!

National Dessert Day was this week (October 9th), and with that in mind, we think it's a good time to give a shout out to some of the best desserts you can find in restaurants around Atlanta.

House Made Ding-Dongs - The Shed at Glenwood
There are two things about Chef Todd Richards that might have escaped your attention. First is that he's a two-time James Beard Award nominee, which takes a level of dedication to your craft that most people simply can't muster. Second is that his restaurant, The Shed at Glenwood, serves one of the most outstanding desserts Atlanta has to offer.
Remember DingDongs from Hostess? Well, The Shed makes a delicious version of it: a couple of layers of chocolate cake with cream sandwiched between them, and covered with an amazing chocolate ganache. It will bring back memories, and create whole new ones.

Boston Cream Pie / Banana Pudding - West Egg
It's Boston Cream Pie, but not as you know it. Instead of making a giant pie, Chris Marconi makes cute mason jars filled with yellow cake, pastry cream and chocolate swirls, and tops it off with a layer of chocolate on the top. The bad news? Boston Cream Pie isn't a permanent menu item, so you gotta get it when it's available. If it's not on the menu when you go by, try the Southern classic Banana Pudding, also in a mason jar. Custard and chunks of banana mixed with meringue fluff and 'nilla wafers, topped with toasted meringue...

NY Style Cheesecake - General Muir
Chef Todd Ginsberg's NY-style deli in Emory Village is in the running to be named best new restaurant of 2013. Aside from the outstanding pastrami sandwiches you can pick up there, there's a cheesecake that's wowing diners, and was listed in Creative Loafing's Best 100 Dishes in the city. It's dense and creamy, just like you want your cheesecake to be, and the crust is firm, but not so firm you have to stab it to break it.

Sticky Toffee Pudding - 4th and Swift
Last year Jay Swift won the Georgia Restaurant Association GRACE Award for Restaurateur of the Year. It was well deserved. His restaurant in the Old Fourth Ward re-imagines comfort food classics, and sticky toffee pudding is always a favorite. Medjool dates add sweetness, and an extra spoonful of toffee sauce dares you to resist licking your plate clean in public. The AJC was compelled to publish the 4th and Swift Sticky Toffee Pudding recipe back in 2010 http://www.accessatlanta.com/news/entertainment/dining/from-the-menu-of-4th-and-swift-1/nQ4D2/ -- and sure, 450 calories per piece might seem like a lot, but perfection comes at a price...

Adult Floats - FarmBurger
While Victory Sandwich might have cornered the market on boozy slushies, Farm Burger's three locations in Buckhead, Dunwoody, and Decatur are the undisputed kings of the adult float. There's nothing too complicated here, just Morelli's ice cream and a carefully paired craft beer to give you something that looks like it came from your childhood, but tastes like it came from beer heaven.

Double Chocolate Bread Pudding - South City Kitchen
For those of us who carbo-load for a trip to the grocery store, South City Kitchen's double chocolate bread pudding is the perfect excuse to put an extra notch in your belt. Made with croissants and a ridiculous amount of chocolate (seriously, it's a lot), this isn't a complicated recipe, but delicious doesn't have to be complicated.  This dessert is ideal for fall days, and the vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg are the kinds of comforting aromas that keep you eating, even when you know you're going to pay for it in your waistline.