By Kelly White

A quick stumble from the Royal Tavern, Cochon and Little Fish, there’s a dessert nook you need to know about. La Golosa, a petite Bella Vista chocolaterie, is a Europhile’s dream. Lounge music wafts through the tight, intimate space. Chocolate bars and gifts whisper suggestively from the wall. The display case is a defiant trove of tempting confections, everything from truffles and pralines with assorted origins and percentages of chocolate to dense wedges of cake.

If there’s anything sexier than the sumptuous Cioccolata Calda, a rich 70% molten drinking chocolate, it’s the Peperoncino variety with chili pepper. Owner Fabio Scarpelli expertly melts some of the purest chocolate in the city. One look into his eyes and the passion will scald you.

Scarpelli’s fine imported chocolate laces other indulgences, including the Pistachio Chocolate Layer Cake. Bold green ganache frosting lights up a smoky dark chocolate cake, with a light nutty finish.

There are the chocolates themselves, which you choose by the piece. The kid in a candy store inside of you has much more grown-up tastes, for rose-flavored white chocolates, olive oil truffles, or sage buttercreams. This is late-night depth at its most gratifying.

Even if you don’t mess with chocolate, La Golosa bets you just don’t know it yet.

La Golosa Dessert Lounge
806 S. 6th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 925-1003
Hours: Tues-Fri 5-11 PM, Sat 5 PM-12 AM
www.golosacafe.com

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