Dessert Spotlight: Sucre

Sucre is a virtual wonderland of clean, genius branding and petite, gourmet dessert offerings.

I emphasize the "branding" aspect first, because it's the beautiful look of the store, the modern packaging and the gorgeous plate design that makes your brain think it's OK to spend $7 on a chocolate bar or $2 for a tiny French macaron.

Some of Sucre's macron options.

The Weekend Rations crew visited Sucre Lakeside on June 9 specifically for their awesome gelato. (Sucre is actually an all-in-one sweet shop / bakery / ice cream parlor / coffee house / designer dessert bar / chocolatier.)

Sucre's gelato case. NOM. Photo courtesy Sucre's Facebook page.

Just like everything else at Sucre, the display case is uber-enticing and colorful. They'll allow you to sample every flavor until you've found the right one; I know this because I asked if it could be done.

In the interest of self-control and portion-control, I got a small serving of the almond gelato. They serve it in a small plastic cup with a tiny plastic spoon / shovel type  eating instrument. This is clever because as you shove these small amounts of gelato into your face, it creates the illusion that you've eaten a lot more than you actually ordered. Which is great, because a small serving will set you back $3.75.

At least one of these flavors is inspired by a popular sno-ball.
Touche', Sucre, touche'.

I know it may be strange for me to say this about a food item from a place that sells almost exclusively dessert, but the thing I liked most about the almond gelato was that it wasn't very sweet. The almond flavor came through without a lot of "sucre" (sugar)! Every now and again I would get a crunch from bits of real almond in the gelato.

On a previous trip I tried the pistachio gelato, which was also a hit. (I'm thinking next trip I'm going to break out of the nut-centric gelato selection...) I probably give the pistachio a slight edge in the flavor department, since I like the actual pistachio taste better, and I just love green ice cream; I think it's funky.

Tyler, ever the chocolate fanatic, stuck with the triple dark chocolate gelato. Good for those who really dig chocolate flavor almost going over to the bitter side of things.

The things I had to go through for a free king cake!

Before I sign off I also want to mention that Sucre seems to be "with it" on the whole social media thing. And because of their smart social media promotions, I've actually gotten some free stuff from them.

Back during Mardi Gas season Tyler and I were on our way to the Jeff Dunham show at the New Orleans arena. While eating dinner what pops up on my Facebook news feed but a surefire way to win a Sucre king cake: Simply photograph yourself with any Sucre product, post the photo on their wall and walk into the store with proof that you'd done so. We walked into the Lakeside store, I took a photo standing next to a 'macaron tree,' posted it right then and there, and bam... I guess you can bet what we ate after the show!

On our latest visit, guests could get a free macaron just by checking in to the Sucre store on Facebook. I was darn well gonna take advantage of that. The chocolate macaron was yummy.

There's a lot to explore at Sucre, so I would suggest looking at the menu before you go to avoid buying one of everything. In particular, the fancy dessert plates ("entrements") look very interesting and are a must-try on future visits.

(By the way, all the food-safe glitter used on the desserts is actually called disco dust and can be bought online for home use... Then maybe you as well can charge $4.25 per cupcake!)