Chances are, your holiday spirit is lagging a little bit this year. You know what you need to feel a little jollier? Hot chocolate. But not just any hot chocolate. At Château de Chantilly, the area’s newest café and bakery, it’s a real Euro-style drinking chocolate made from melted dark chocolate, not a powder. It is rich, viscous and intensely flavored as nearly anything I’ve had on “the Continent.” And as a coffee hater, I’ve had more than my share of hot chocolates in my life.
But that’s far from the only thing to recommend Château. I did dare to have a taste of my dining partner’s coffee and it won me over as much as a cup of coffee can. That’s because he ordered the Periwinkle Café Latte, espresso and steamed milk that are dominated by the scent of dried lavender. The floral notes muted the bitter ones for me.
Château is in a large, shabby chic space with soaring ceilings, filled with cozy couches and comfy chairs. But right now, hungry hordes outnumber the tables. This problem could be alleviated by limiting the time that customers are allowed to park on their computers, the main constituency that took up tables when I was there. A line snaked around the case of buns and other both sweet and savory Asian-inflected baked goods. This led to the refrigerated case that holds a candy-colored rainbow of mousses and layer cakes.
Mousse tarts alone are flavored with everything from blueberry to mango, then crowned with fresh fruit. Not everything is labeled accurately, though. My dining partner thought he was getting a peach mousse, but was surprised, then pleased, to have ended up with one of the fluffiest cheesecakes I have ever tasted. My chocolate cake, filled with layers of cream and fresh strawberries was also ethereally light. In fact, the desserts were so airy that we weighed getting another, just for the sake of trying a fruit tart or doughnut. But there will be future visits for that, long past the holidays. // 13974 Metrotech Dr., Chantilly
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