A new bakery in town is ALWAYS a reason to celebrate. But here are 10 reasons, in no particular order, to be extra-excited about the opening of a second location (in Capitol Hill!) for The Confectional, a specialty mini-cheesecake seller with another location in the Pike Place Market:
- Passionfruit Cheesecake. With Seeds. On Purpose. So, though he is American, one of the owners, Paul, spent a few years living in New Zealand, and as such is inspired by the flavors of his for a while hometown. And he's bringing a popular NZ flavor to this stateside sweet: Passionfruit! But unlike many passionfruit-flavored sweets to be found in the US (which are pretty rare to begin with), he's made the decision to include the seeds, because, as he says, "that's where the flavor is!". This sweet flavor will debut at the grand opening on June 4.
- Bigger facilities. This means they have more room to experiment and dream up new flavors--they have thoughts (nothing definite yet) of further exploration into owner Paul's past in New Zealand (ANZAC biscuit crust, anyone?), and there was even some crazy-talk of possibly adding savory cheesecake to the menu.
- Everything's like, totally natural, ingredient-wise. Cage Free Eggs and all that business. When they told me that there were no trans fats or hydrogenated oils on their menu, I was all like "Duh", because we are in Seattle and the Granola People Will Not Stand For That. But, you know, it's still impressive.
- I can tell you a secret: bakery owners never tell you the truth when you ask "what's the best thing here?" because, you know, they take pride in your product. But I have a pretty good idea based on the way that they talked with extra love about certain flavors that the favorites of the owners (respectively) are the Mint Cookie Cheesecake (above) and the Caramel Cheesecake (below).
- Gluten-Freedom. The chocolate-coated cheesecake truffles are all gluten-free, my wheat-wary friends! They can do gluten-free (crustless) cheesecakes too, upon request.
- A Good Crust to Filling Ratio. Don't know about you, but huge slices of cheesecake often have too much cheese, and too little crust to offer a flavor and texture complement. When served in mini portions though, there's plenty of crust to add a nice cookielike dimension to the creamy cheesecake flavor.
- Colombian Hot Chocolate. Description: "This delightful concoction, created by owner Paul Verano, is an homage to a recipe passed down from his Abuelita Tutu. Paul’s version is the thick European-style drinking chocolate that satisfies serious chocolate cravings." This stuff is good, and now they have a coffee adaptation of it. Yeah!
- Everyone who works there is extremely attractive and nice. This does matter.
- More mail-order. Even if you're not in Seattle, the bigger space is allowing them to expand their mail-order business. Cheesecake by mail? You bet your bottom dollar.
- If I really need to give you one more reason to be excited about a new sugar-shilling establishment in Seattle, we have Big Problems.
Go there! The grand opening is on June 4. In the meantime, the opening is soft, but the cheesecake is HARDCORE on Broadway, right next to Poppy restaurant. Hit 'em up at theconfectional.com.