The Chocolate Room: a Safe Haven in Brooklyn
The Chocolate Room’s Park Slope location is tucked away on fifth avenue, only a few blocks from the Barclays Center. The first thing you see when you walk in is the case of chocolates. It’s illuminated with a light that allows each bonbon to shine sensually, and the chocolates housed within carry names like “Jeanette” or “Charlotte,” printed on thick cardstock, with ingredients listed beneath the names. Seconds after entering, you’ll be struck by the smell — chocolate, unadulterated.
At the Chocolate Room, the brown brick walls and the tawny booths all seem reminiscent of chocolate itself. This, in conjunction with the white tiled floor and the dim, incandescent lighting, lends the Chocolate Room a certain comfort — a stark contrast from the bustling city streets outside. It truly feels like a safe haven, a place where one can take a breath, fill one’s lungs with chocolatey fumes, and smile.
If you’re just stopping in for a quick chocolate fix, the front of the store houses baked goods to go, like brownies and chocolate chip cookies, and various custom-made chocolates (available for order individually or in boxes). There are also seasonal offerings, like this winter’s hot chocolate sticks: hunks of chocolate on sticks, meant to be stirred into hot milk. These delicacies are all delicious, and usually taste fresher than baked goods do in most bakeries of this sort, but if you’re able to spare some time to sit down, it’s well worth it.
When you sit down at a table, the first thing delivered to you is an amuse bouche. In fall and winter, this consists of the flourless chocolate cake; in spring and summer they treat you with a tantalizing taste of their chocolate gelato. Neither of these options disappoint.
The best menu section off which to order is without a doubt the signatures. A big crowd pleaser is the Chocolate Mousse, which comes in the shape of a dome, with a hardened chocolate exterior. Inside the shell, there are layers of creamy milk chocolate mousse, caramel, and flourless chocolate cake. At the top of the dome there is a sprinkling of crunchy hazelnut. It makes for an impressively ornate plate, and although the portion size is small, the confection certainly compensates in richness.
The best thing on the menu is perhaps the simplest: the brownie sundae. The charm of this dessert is not in its novelty; a brownie sundae is oft cited as an American classic. Instead, the brownie sundae at the Chocolate Room is special because each ingredient is so impeccably crafted. All the various elements are made in-house, excepting the ice cream, which is locally sourced. The hot fudge sauce, which the Chocolate Room bottles and sells in the front of the restaurant, is almost sludge-like in its thickness. The brownie has been heated. A bite of cold, vanilla bean ice cream and hot brownie provides an exhilarating shock to the system. Even their whipped cream deserves praise: not too thick or too sweet, it is absolutely necessary to tie the piece together. In short, you’ve tasted a brownie sundae, but you’ve never before tasted the perfect brownie sundae. This is a dish that you’ll crave every day for years.
It might seem that the Chocolate Room is just a cheap spinoff of Max Brenner, the immensely popular Manhattan chocolate bar in a similar theme. This could not be further from the truth. Both restaurants sell chocolate products, and therefore will always be comparable; yet on every other front, Max Brenner and the Chocolate Room differ. Max Brenner has become a tourist attraction, overrun with people attempting to see the best NYC has to offer. As a result, if you want to sit and eat, you need a reservation. Additionally, Max Brenner serves full meals, not just chocolate-based goods, so you can enter and exit this “Chocolate Bar” without ever touching chocolate. The smell of melting chocolate does not permeate the restaurant space, having been overpowered by various pizzas and salads.
The Chocolate Room reclaims the mold from which Max Brenner strayed and perfects it. It is quintessentially a chocolate restaurant. Everything on the menu includes chocolate. The restaurant is safely housed in a cozy location in Brooklyn, far from the touristy Manhattan crowds. The Chocolate Room does good business — on a Saturday night, it’s difficult to get a table — but not in the same way as Max Brenner. The crowd is intimate, hushed, romantic. For these reasons and more, the Chocolate Room offers a more pure chocolate experience than Max Brenner ever could.
This is not to say that the Chocolate Room’s business model is perfect. There are a few issues — the waiters and waitresses come around immediately to take your order, and deliver the food relatively quickly, but never come to drop off the check. It seems to vary from hour to hour whether payment happens at the tables or at the counter. Yet this tepid struggle pales in comparison with waiting forty-five minutes for a table at Max Brenner.
Overall, the Chocolate Room provides Brooklyn with a rustic reminder of what it is that makes chocolate so good. It feels like a home, if one’s home were made of chocolate. Therefore, if ever you are searching for a cute date restaurant or a sweet nightcap, don’t elect to go to Max Brenner, with all its crowds and chaos. The Chocolate Room is the perfect spot.
