Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The Charles F. Lucas Confectionery & Wine Bar

Not too long ago FUSSYlittleBLOG wrote about iced coffee at The Confectionery and as a coffee fiend, I had to try it for myself. My absolute favorite iced coffee joint from my NYC days is Abraco in the East Village. They hands down have the best iced coffee in town; it's stupidly strong yet uniquely tart and oddly enough, a bit sour. At the same time it's not too bitter and the ratio of ice to milk to sweetener is just magical. I shouldn't be comparing The Confectionery's iced coffee to Abraco's standards, but in my mind, nothing will ever top Abraco. The magic at Abraco is most likely in the beans but I was pretty happy with the Confection version. It's refreshingly tart yet not too bitter. I'm no stranger to chicory coffee; it's our go to Vietnamese style coffee (with condensed milk of course). Chicory does give the coffee blend a mellower flavor and while I favor a strong, dark roast I appreciate it just as much in iced coffee especially when it's a cold brew.

Iced coffees aside, The Lucas Confectionery is like an adult candyland. On our first trip, we

got there too late and missed out on Troyster Tuesdays and opted for a cheese and charcuterie board with a glass of Riesling of course. We ended up with some speck,prosciutto, and teahive cheese. The teahive is Cheddar style, cow's cheese hand rubbed with black tea and bergamot oil that imparts a unique floral undertone and was just delightful especially paired with a shortbread cookie. There's no doubt that The Confectionery is serving quality products. These paper thin cured meats are melt in your mouth unctious bites of salty fatty bites. I'm no connaiseur of wine pairings, but whatever I was drinking along was fine by me; the star was this slate of meat and cheese.


On our second visit today, we came early enough to get our hands on some oysters. J and I have been hooked on oyster shooters since our trip to Eventide in Portland, Maine. This wasn't Maine quality but this week's oysters satisfied a craving for briny seafood. We didn't really care for the red wine mignonette but the cocktail sauce with black caviar and horseradish had a good kick to it and paired well with the oysters. A dozen of these suckers was just what we needed. After the last trip's charcuterie experience, we couldn't pass up on a nosh of smoked duck breast. What a delightful bite--not too smokey, a bit gamey, and that little bit of fat was so luxurious. 

As if we couldn't indulge a bit more, we just couldn't pass up on dessert. We were devastated when our waitress said the last of the salted caramel truffle had sold out. Good thing we ordered two more desserts: the homemade blueberry poptart and chocolate chip cookie

with pretzel and potato chip. I've had Momofuku's version of the compost cookie and have made my own killer batch once. I was rather disappointed by this bite. The cookie was too dry and cake-like for my taste (I'm team buttery and chewy) and it barely had any bites of potato chips and pretzels. Any salty bites that I did get were soggy rather than crunchy.

The star of the night however was the homemade pop tart. I'm very nostalgic when it comes to these popular treats, especially for the brown sugar ones from my college vending machine days. These reinvented ones are so much better. The blue frosting is a lil alarming at first but one bite and you'll fall in love. The filling is made with fresh fruit and a far cry from the cloyingly sweet artificial flavors of the name brand. J and I were big fans of the crust; not too crumbly and the frosting was just the right amount of sweetness but not too much. J begged for one to take home and I regret not doing so now as I write about how good it is. 



It's a nice atmosphere at The Lucas Confectionery; contemporary yet quirky, laid back, and unpretentious. It gets a little more hectic when it's crowded but our server was very attentive, which we always appreciate given our streak with bad service. It's nice to see classier yet accessible establishments and we can't wait to come back for more desserts and charcuterie. -R

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