Room 4 Dessert

[Bond Girl]

Room 4 Dessert is Will Goldfarb's new dessert place. The joint promises lots of re-interpretation of lots of childhood desserts. I personally can't wait for the Cotton Candy. Going to friends and family tomorrow night. The place officially opens for wednesday. Will report back.

Room 4 Dessert

17 Cleveland Place

Between Spring and Kenmare

(212)941-5405

[peteswanson]

Also in New York magazine this week:

http://nymetro.com/nymetro/food/openings/15532/

Akwa, the person formally known as Will Goldfarb, will be opening this new dessert bar this week. Very excited to see this confection driven establishment take Will to new heights......I'm flying,.....weeeeeee

[Sneakeater]

A friend who lives at Broome & Mott just called to ask what I want to do Thursday night. I'm psyched!

[tan319]

Looks great!

Dug the pic in NYMag.

[docsconz]

i'm excited to visit and sample the fare next time I'm in NYC. Another interesting looking place mentioned in that NY Magazine article is Urena, what appears to be another hypermodern Spanish influenced restaurant in NYC.

[tan319]

That's looking good to me too, doc!

[docsconz]

So as not to derail this topic, discussion on Urena can be found here.

Back to topic- I have not yet had the pleasure to try Chef Goldfarb's work. Are there any particular flavor profiles or combinations that he is especially known for?

[tan319]

Andrea Strong's Strongbuzz has a a mini review of Room 4 Dessert.

The link will take you pretty much right to it.

BTW, The Strong Buzz, IMHO, is a very worthwhile bulletin to sign up to, and it's free.

[Bond Girl]

Friends and Family night was yesterday. I did not have everything but the ones I did have was very very good. A lot of the stiff on the menu was inspired by his daughterso you get a lot of childhood desserts re-interpreted.

Having just had a taco from La Esquina before I got there, I was very happy to find a fresh lychee cream floating on a pomelo gelee. This was followed by a frothy trip of lemon ice cream, caramel ice cream and brioche with a homey "nolitela', a housemade chocolate hazel nut spread. The chocolate note was taken up by a glass of sinfully rich chocobubbles, which is undoubtedly the best cure for a cranky mood. The scenery changed into vanilla after that and I was charmed by a lovely sabayon cream with reduced cola and little crunchy bits if nuts and cornflakes inside that reminds me of milk and cereal. Then a dramatic cotton candy on a white paper cone appeared with a meringue and whole milk ice cream.

Given all the flack that Will's got over the past year, he's really less controversial then his fame claims. While conserverative eaters may find the menu somewhat chellenging and the techniques experimental, but the desserts are really fun and happy. Go and check it out, you won't regret it.

[tan319]

Great to hear!

Great news

[TrishCT]

I'd be interested in hearing comparisons to Chikalicious...I understand the desserts are totally different....just wondering about the basic experience. I personally find Chikalicious too precious.

[madziast]

Friends and Family night was yesterday. I did not have everything but the ones I did have was very very good.  A lot of the stiff on the menu...

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mmmm... i'd like some of that

[Bond Girl]

I'd be interested in hearing comparisons to Chikalicious...I understand the desserts are totally different....just wondering about the basic experience.  I personally find Chikalicious too precious.

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Chikalicious is dainty and lady like. Room 4 Dessert is fun, irreverrent and playful. The desserts are much more interactive and the atomosphere more laid back. You also get full size desserts rather than bite size tastings.

(Bond Girl @ Jan 18 2006, 08:07 AM)

Friends and Family night was yesterday. I did not have everything but the ones I did have was very very good.  A lot of the stiff on the menu...

mmmm... i'd like some of that

Ooops...

[mjc]

I tried this place out last night with a couple of friends. I thought it was excellent. It’s a great concept and the desserts were fantastic and well executed.

Then menu is divided into desserts in a glass for $9 (4) and tastings for $12 (6). We had 3 of the “tasting” items. Each item can be paired with either some type of dessert wine/champagne, or tea. Each of the tastings is made up 4 small items served in small porcelain dishes on top of a long rectangular plate. I’ll do my best to describe what we had.

Apple in Various States

Sorbet tatin, tartare, ‘cidre’, fata papillote

This consisted of the sorbet, which was incredibly smooth (thanks to the paco jet) and had a nice caramelized apple flavor. The tartare was 2-3mm cubes of apple, apple gelee, and sprigs of micro basil (?). The cidre was a very warm spiced apple cider that was perfectly clear. And the fata papillote was a silver dollar sized slice of apple in a stapled up plastic bag served next to a similar sized biscuit, after extracting the apple slice you could assemble a tart. Each item was very good. I especially liked the last one, but opening that little back was tricky.

Voyage to India

Coco, mango 17480 (cat), parfait, ‘kulfi’

This contained a small ring of chocolate mouse on top of what seemed to be a very crispy wafer. The mouse had hints of curry flavor, which I believe came from curry powder sprinkled over the top. The mango was mango caviar. The parfait was very neat; it was a layer of coconut mouse (of marshmallow?) and had a powdered form of bottom layer on top. To me it tasted like a coconut marshmallow and I found the item surprising. The kulfi were just that, and were two small discs, kind of looked like those candy dots on paper I used to eat at a kid.

Plat du jour

Nolitela, caramel ice cream, brioche, cloud

This had a blue jar on which was placed a name tag that said “Hi my name is R4D Nolitela”, which was the home made “nutella” bond girl mentioned, this was along side a piece of brioche, caramel ice cream, and a frozen lemon meringue cloud.

As I said, everything was very good. In my mind these are desserts at the 3-4 star restaurant level. Everything was also very petite and light. With that in mind, I feel that these were good desserts if you had already had dessert. I had the sense that they belong somewhere in a flight of pre-dessert, dessert, petit fors, and I’m not sure in which place I would put them. Of course you can combine desserts from the "glass" and "tasting" menu and finish the the petit fors, which would probably be a really great idea, but kind of pricey.

As for the comparison to Chikalicous, I have to disagree with bond girl. I thought that some part of the atmosphere are similar, but that Room 4 Dessert is much swankier, its dark and narrow and very cool, while Chikalicious is very bright and open. I didn’t feel that R4D was “laid back” at all. I would say these desserts are equally as playful and that the desserts here were more so bite sized tastings, as compared to Chikalicious where you have one “full size” dessert (read: smallish).

Overall I think it’s a great place, doing very high end, cool stuff and worth checking out.

Edited January 21, 2006 by mjc (log)

[adamru]

I went to R4D last night and on a comfort level alone there's no comparison to Chikalicious. I've never felt that comfortable squeezing between tables and knowing there's a line of people nearby waiting for my seat. Dessert was always so small and I never got a sense I could linger. Dessert was consistently excellent, but once the novelty of a deconstructed dessert faded I longed for something heartier and R4D definitely filled that void. One thing both Chikalicious and R4D do is maximize the potential of their space. I ate at the crudo and sushi versions of the space before this and it's an incredible transformation - warmer, darker, more intimate, and better suited for a date than then afternoon tea vibe at Chikalicious.

Desserts were well-made, intense and a great value. My girlfriend had the apple tasting with its wine pairing, I had one of the glass desserts and the chocolate mint tea pairing. The chocolate mousse came warm in a tall glass taking up about 3/4 of it atop a layer of crunchies that tasted like puffed rice and on the bottom a layer of sherry jelly. You couldn't really get a taste of all three in one bite, instead it was a nice evolution through the three tastes and it was perfectly filling. The only comparison that comes to mind is a drinkable chocolate mousse I had at Applewood in Brooklyn.

I didn't get to try every part of the apple tasting but the warm clear cider would be a worthy drink on its own on the menu.

I didn't get to examine all the ingredients they have for sale but I know they're adding more soon. The chill-out indie music was a great complement to the dim light and decor and the staff was incredibly friendly and informative while making the desserts right in front of us. The check was a little over fifty dollars with tip which is as best I can remember the same at Chikalicious.

[Sneakeater]

It's hard to say enough good things about Room 4 Dessert. The space has been cannily renovated and is now somehow both extremely comfortable and extremely cool. The obviously overworked staff -- congratulations, guys, the amount of business you appear to be doing must have exceeded your fairest hopes -- look like slick Soho/Nolita peoploids, but they're really nice. The music is great.

And, oh yeah, the food.

Everything seems to be completely thought through, and, on the basis of the dishes my companion and I had, is completely delicious. Intellectually engaging, fun, brilliantly executed, and great tasting -- how much better can it get?

As has been noted, there are the desserts by the glass (for something like $7 or $9 -- I guess it must be $9), and the "tasting" plates (for $12). I had a "glass" -- a so-called white chocolate margarita (I don't like white chocolate, but in this dish the white chocolate foam floated over a meyer lemon gelee, and I find it hard to avoid ordering anything with meyer lemon in it). As someone commented earlier in this thread, you don't experience these "glass" desserts as a mix of flavors, but rather as a succession of flavors. This one really worked (and I have a feeling that the others are even better).

My companion had the "sushi" tasting. I can't tell you what the four objects on her platter were, but I can recount her complete rapture as she ate them.

The teas, created by a maker called Atelier, were fantastic. I had the recommended pairing of a barley tea that was incomporably better than any I've ever had in a Korean place. My companion went off the reservation and ordered a tea that wasn't the recommended pairing with her dessert. It was an almond tea that was (you're not going to believe the advertising tag line that's coming, but I mean it) indescribably delicious.

They told us that they're still fiddling with the hours. They're coming to realize that they'd do well to stay open very late on weekends. I think this would be a great late-night stop.

I can't wait to go back to try more desserts. I can't wait to try some wine pairings. I think this place will be a huge success. I only hope it doesn't become impossible to get in. I'm going to go there a lot while I still can.

Edited January 22, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)

[Sneakeater]

Back to Room 4 Dessert.

What I'd like to focus on this time is how, in addition to serving superb food, this place is very conciously attempting to build a client base by being nice to customers.

Will greeted me as I walked in, remembering me from a couple of days ago. He asked where my dining companion, a neighborhood girl, was. He remembered that she had been fighting a cold the last time we were there and asked if she was better. In fact, she was home in bed, deciding if she could get out to meet me for dessert.

While I was waiting, I had a glass of Chocobubbles and the suggested pairing of a dark sweet sherry. If you like chocolate, you'll love Chocobubbles. Olive oil biscuits (well, they're not really biscuits, but what do I know about French patissiere?) may not spring into your mind as the most obvious things to put into a chocolate drink -- but that's why Will Goldfarb is a genius dessert chef and you're not. Sherry and chocolate, on the other hand, is hardly a new concept. But there's a reason people have always liked it.

I asked one of the French guys/owners about a Slovenian riesling on the wine list, and a complimentary glass appeared in front of me. It was very good: Austrian-tasting, as the French guy/owner himself remarked.

My dining companion called and said she didn't think she could get out of bed, and asked me to come over to her nearby apartment to, um, minister to her. There went the dessert "tasting" plate I was planning to have when she got there. Will insisted I take her a brioche and a jar of Nolitella (their housemade nutella), again complimentary.

The brioche and Nolitella proved to be sovereign. My sick friend opened the jar and shrieked, "Nutella!!!!!!!!!" I know Will is reading this, and I'm sure he'll want to know that after my friend finished dipping the brioche (she wasn't getting out of bed to get implements), she attacked the remaining contents of the jar with her fingers. If the jar were bigger, I'm sure she'd have done a Winnie the Pooh. It only took a few minutes for the jar to be empty.

I'm not saying the Room 4 Dessert crew are miracle workers, but they can make the sick to eat.

Edited January 24, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)

[Sneakeater]

(I should add that the Nolitella really caused a remarkable recovery. Much later on, after some ministrations, I mentioned that my favorite Mexican restaurant in New York is Tulcinga del Valle. "That place on Tenth Avenue near 46th Street?!" the women who had been unable to leave her bed exclaimed. "You know it, too! Hey, do you think they're still open this late?")

Edited January 24, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)

[Bux]

. . . .

Everything seems to be completely thought through, . . . .

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This is not surprising, if Will is nothing else, he's a thinker.

We were out of town when this opened, but I'm pleased to read the good reviews here. They're not surprising either.

[tan319]

I want to go there.

NOW!!!

[xdrixn]

small blurb

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/01/..._in_the_k_9.php

[Sethro]

I'm going Sunday evening, and I'm very excited.

[oakapple]

These days, it's a good idea to check if the web address corresponding to your restaurant name is available. It looks like Will Goldfarb doesn't do that. If you enter www.room4dessert.com in your web browser, you are redirected to www.roomfordessertchicago.com, an unrelated establishment in the Windy City.

[Bux]

These days, it's a good idea to check if the web address corresponding to your restaurant name is available. It looks like Will Goldfarb doesn't do that. If you enter www.room4dessert.com in your web browser, you are redirected to www.roomfordessertchicago.com, an unrelated establishment in the Windy City.

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www.nyr4d.com is on the bar's business card, but I don't belileve the site is up and running yet.

[Bond Girl]

I'm going Sunday evening, and I'm very excited.

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They are not open on Sunday.

These days, it's a good idea to check if the web address corresponding to your restaurant name is available. It looks like Will Goldfarb doesn't do that. If you enter www.room4dessert.com in your web browser, you are redirected to www.roomfordessertchicago.com, an unrelated establishment in the Windy City.

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The restaurant was built on a shoestring, I'd be surprised if they have the budget to build it. The graphic designer Enilie is now working in Paris and I 'm not sure if Will has a web designer. I will find out.