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Dessert oasis

The best sweets in town, plus a few other items of note
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By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
October 17th, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Sweet dreams in Vinohrady: just some of Passion Chocolat's selection.
Just a few weeks after it opened, lines formed at Passion Chocolat.
Why not? There’s the attraction of color, as bright fruit tarts and deep chocolate tranches beckon from window cases. The interior is stylishly streamlined. Servers smile — patiently — as you point at one dessert, ponder a moment, then pull back as indecision takes control. And the French owners bring authenticity from their shop in Fréjus, on the Cote d’Azur between Cannes and St. Tropez.
But the real reason people queue up for Passion Chocolat’s homemade creations is probably none of the above. Simply put, chocolates, cakes and pastries served at this Vinohrady patisserie rank as the best in Prague.
No need for deconstruction here. To write about the dense, mellow flavors of nuts or the explosive natural sweetness of strawberries, the rich but gentle crunch of shortbread, the indescribable single-source chocolate from France’s Rhone valley … well, I actually don’t think it’s possible for words to do the place justice.
Savor Passion Chocolat at Italská 5, just off náměstí Miru. Call 222 524 333 for more information.
Daily specials
Two hotels of the Eurostars chain — Thalia and David — celebrate “The Art of Wine,” a fusion of Spanish food and wine, through Oct. 31. Wines are culled from Enate, and the art from Vincente Garcia Plana, including a collection of used bottles of red and white made into a sculpture. Find out more at 226 201 910 (Thalia) or 222 516 150 (David).
Space is probably limited, but give them a shout anyway: Oct. 17–18, Alcron hosts famed chef Alex Atala, whose restaurant, D.O.M. in Sao Paolo, is considered one of the world’s best … or in the top 50, anyway. He will cook up Brazilian specialties. Call 222 820 028 for details.
If you can’t find a seat at Alcron, then perhaps Greek night at nearby Jáma will do. On Oct. 18, the long-standing American-style bar teams up with the guys from Olympos in Žižkov for a festival of food, live music, dancing and ouzo.
Comings and goings
Chef Martin Held recently stepped in to run the kitchen at Culinaria. His previous gigs include Flambee, Hergetova Cihelna and Essensia — not bad. Also, the shop’s Indian chef, Narinder Singh, returned from a summer cooking curry and tikki masala and other British favorites in London.
If I didn’t, I should have mentioned the opening, some months back, of Delphi, a Greek place along Podolské nábřeží in Prague 4. Or, for that matter, Babylon, a relatively new Mediterranean restaurant located where Prague 2 slides into the Nusle Valley.
A note on the door at the shuttered Bohemia Bagel at Újezd alludes to a problem with the lease. More later.
Corner Bar & Bistro, the Vinohrady outpost of Old Town’s Bar & Books, has introduced a new menu, listing burgers, tuna melts and such.
From a reasonably reliable source: Reset Bar & Restaurant in Vinohrady, once a place to avoid, recently took on a new chef and kicked things up several notches.
Final (slurred) words
Since you can never have enough of a good thing, a few final comments on Passion Chocolat: Proprietor Nadine Musso admits the thought of bringing high-quality desserts to Prague was daunting at first, and it was “much trouble” to open the space. The staff produces everything in-house, from flaky pastry crust to candy. But, she adds, “Prague is a wonderful town and a lot of people like the French patisserie idea.”
Keeping up the constant supply of goods, from chocolate to boxes, remains vexing, she adds —“difficult, but very, very necessary.”
Despite all the little frustrations, Musso says in the end, “Our job is pleasure plus pleasure plus pleasure.”

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


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