I’m sick and tired of wondering up and down the mall, thinking to myself, “wow, it is such a wonderful morning outside and I would really like an espresso and a pastry.” I’m reasonably happy with the espresso situation, but the available pastries don’t compliment a morning coffee.  We’ve got donuts, cookies, crazy cakes and a lot more, but I ask you, my dear Charlottesvillains, where is the Pâtisserie?

Is the skillset too difficult to learn?  Does Charlottesville’s relatively small size not justify a quality pastry chef?  I’ve wondered this for 5 years now and I can’t seem to come up with an answer.  Perhaps it’s not attractive for a well-trained patissier to come to a little town like Charlottesville. But, with desserts that cost $7 to $10 at most of the higher end restaurants in town,  you think this would be an attractive business opportunity.

So, here is my proposal for the brave epicurean/entrepreneur who wishes to recruit an ambitious pastry chef to Charlottesville:

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Popularity: 84% [?]

Charlottesville has a new cookie and cupcake bakery to be excited about: Cappellino’s Crazy Cakes which is located across from Fluerie on Third Street (the newly bricked side-street on the Downtown Mall).

I didn’t really know I would be giving this place a review, but I was a little hungry and curious about Charlottesville latest dessert trend. Between the famous Cupcakes & Co sweets at Feast, the replacement for those cupcakes at Feast (they told me that the girls couldn’t keep up with demand), cupcake Friday’s at Mudhouse, and now Cappellino’s, we’ve got A LOT of cupcakes in this town.

In addition to cupcakes, Cappellino’s also offers a host of amazing gourmet sweets: decorated cakes which look like the Mad Hatter (and too many other things to write), many types of cookies and poundcakes. The store is owned and run by brother and sister, Dotty and Frank Cappellino. They told me they would offer samples everyday, focus on offering high quality ingredients and were hesitant to let coffee shops sell their sweets because they were concerned about proper storage and freshness.

How did everything taste?

I sampled a little too much. As one of the reviewers from the Baked Goods Brigade’s Great Charlottesville Cookie Roundup, I can honestly say that Dotty’s cookies would take a medal home and beat out most of the competition. I don’t know if they would beat Feast’s Molasses cookie, and I will take applicants to reform the Baked Goods Brigade to see if we need to crown a new winner. There were no aluminum tastes, the cookies were cooked just right and the flavors were well balanced. They have a banana chocolate that was so kickass, I can’t even begin… Their oatmeal cranberry was also excellent (though, I’d recommend slightly less cranberry and some orange peel).

The cupcakes are going to give Cupcake & Co a run for its money. I think it would be wise to do a cupcake roundup, but Cappellino’s has some very unique flavors. For instance, as I was leaving they brought out the Creamsicle cupcakes. Frank said his Red Velvet were the best.

Anyway, head on by. Cappellino’s is open during the week starting at 11AM. Let us know what you think. They have tons of samples for you, so don’t be shy!

Full slideshow after the break…

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Popularity: 61% [?]

Okay, so this past month I went on a root beer quest. I seached C’ville far and wide for the best bottled root beer. Probably because I’m a homer (d’oh!), I liked Dominion best.

So, here’s my list of root beers available in C’ville, in order of how much I liked them. I highly recommend the top three. If anyone knows of any other root beer available in the area, I’d love to hear about it.

Dominion Root Beer (Ashburn, VA)
Taste: Excellent mix of sweet flavors, with a strong (Virginia) honey taste. (A-)
Available: Foods of All Nations, Giant Supermarkets, Monticello

Natural Brew Root Beer (Chico, CA)
Taste: My favorite non-fructose root beer. A very full combination of flavors. (B+)
Available: Harris Teeter, Whole Foods

Gale’s Root Beer (Chicago, IL)
Taste: Very strong cinammon flavoring, almost overpowering. Unique! (B+)
Available: Foods of All Nations (single bottle only)

IBC Root Beer (Dallas, TX)
Taste: A solid old-school root beer. No gimmacks. There’s a reason why this is such a popular root beer. (B)
Available: Wal-Mart, Kroger, Foods of All Nations

Sprecher (Glendale, WI)
Taste: Good not-too-sweet flavor, but with an unpleasant bitter aftertaste. (C+)
Available: From Scratch Bakery (single bottle only)

Boylan’s (Moonachie, NJ)
Taste: Low carbination makes it taste like it’s been open for a few days. (C-)
Available: Whole Foods, World Market

Virgil’s Root Beer (Los Angeles, CA)
Taste: Too many flavors thrown in, especially the licorice. (C-)
Available: World Market (small keg available)

Stewart’s Root Beer (Rye Brook, NY)
Taste: Imagine a root beer candy floating in a mud puddle. (D+)
Available: Foods of All Nations (single bottle), Kroger

Extra Credit:
Cally’s Homemade Root Beer (Harrisonburg, VA)
Taste: Brain-bogglingly vanilla sweet with low carbination. (C+)
Available: Cally’s Restaurant and Brewing in downtown Harrisonburg.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Contributing to this article were: Dr. Jonas von Klenk, Master C, & Jimmy Chocolate Chunkster Junior

After an argument over Charlottesville’s best cookies which involved chains, tasers, boot knives, diapers, and the Police, we decided to settle the issue amicably and as scientifically as possible.

While we initially tried to hire Dr. von Klenk’s rival, Chocborg Tolman at Oxford, we ultimately settled for the less illustrious Klenk, an aspiring rapper, and child with Type II diabetes in a Rascal scooter.

This is the story of three strangers, picked to live in a house and judge cookies. (Caveat: Jimmy, Jr. had to be home for an 8:00 bed time, per his mother’s request.)

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Popularity: 8% [?]

Many of us who have foolishly vacationed/backpacked in Italy during the summer months (hottest time of the year) remember with delicious distinction what a refreshing feeling a scoop or two of your favorite gelato flavor brought to a squelching summer day. There must have been many who made this pilgrimage across the pond as there has been a gelato revolution in the US for the past couple of years.

Rounding the corners of various downtown malls in the country we are all of a sudden struck with deja vu: could it be we are back at the Piazza San Marco? No you definitely are not, but you might have found yourself at one of Charlottesville’s many gelato outlets. Walking in these mostly modern establishments, you are greeted by pans, not tubs of Italian ice cream: gelato. But not all gelati are made equal. Cville Magazine attempts to create this distinction with the Best of C-VILLE award, but I think they have it wrong.

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Popularity: 6% [?]