power rankings: sweets on the side

Coffee and a donut. Coffee and a danish. Coffee and a biscotti. Nothing elevates a terrific coffee, particularly after a meal, than serving it with a baked goodie. Particularly true for specialty coffees, and luckily many cafes offer a wide selection of tempting sugary goodness. If they broadcast having a pastry chef, you are really in luck. Shoutout to the affogato, but we’re talking coffee sidekicks that you can hold in one hand.

Here is one person’s ranking of the best choices to enjoy with your cappuccino/macchiato/latte/espresso/americano/etc. My faves are, naturally, weighted toward my geographic area. As always these things are purely subjective and your mileage may vary.

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review: Dolcezza

yes, they used the ‘a’ word

see myaffogato wars of DCpost

Our final stop on our tour of DC gelato/specialty coffee shops is the Bethesda, MD outlet of Dolcezza. An area chain that is up to nine locations, including inside the Hirschorn Museum at the Smithsonian, they are noted for producing their own very high quality gelato (they use terms like crafted and artisanal quite a bit), and fitting out their shops beautifully. The Bethesda shop is a spot I know quite well, as for the past two years it’s been the nearest place to home to get a decent espresso.

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review: La Gelatteria

see myaffogato wars of DCpost

Before I start on any details, the name. The name! Gelateria, the Italian name for an ice cream shop, is spelled with one L, derivating from the word gelato. I get what they’re doing here, as the picture above clearly shows – and good on them for trying to make the coffee as important as the gelato, but the pedant in me has an awfully hard time getting past it (kind of like my issues with the kids on my lawn).

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affogato wars of DC

clockwise from top: Pitango; Dolcezza; Gelatteria

The Washington DC area has a couple local chains (Dolcezza and Pitango) and a stand-alone cafe (Gelatteria) which have two main offerings: specialty coffee, and high-end gelato. Sounds like fodder for a taste test, so I recently visited all three for a comparison.

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