In Search of Vegan Desserts? Donut Look Any Further!
A berry tart from Brooklyn Whiskers Cafe, moments before it met its fate. Photo: Daniela Mejia
By AARIN ARORA and DANIELA MEJIA
Brooklyn Whiskers (★★★★★) 1037 Broadway, Bushwick
In a quiet little slice of New York City lives this hole-in-the-wall vegan bakery that has stolen our hearts. Formerly located in Greenpoint, they now have a location off the J train at the Kosciuszko Street Station in Bushwick. What they lack in size they make up for with a wide variety of desserts and drinks.
One of our favorites has to be their brownie ($4). Packed with rich chocolatey flavor that isn’t overpowering but sits at “just right,” their brownie outshines others on the market despite being vegan. The texture is superb: soft and chewy in the middle and crispy around the edges.
We were also pleasantly surprised by their adorable berry tart, made with fresh fruit and decorated with pie crust hearts. One of the bakery’s best features is that they rotate between different desserts daily. The atmosphere is very lively despite the small space, and the workers are very friendly, too, and fit the bakery’s hipster aesthetics. It is a wonderful place to go, with or without friends.
Peacefood Cafe (★★★) 41 E 11th St, Greenwich Village
A short walk from Union Square sits this quaint little spot. While the establishment brands itself as a cafe, it is actually a full-fledged restaurant. Peacefood offers a lot of different vegan sweets, from cookies to cakes, but they also have an extensive lunch and dinner menu. For the sake of this review, let’s keep it about the sugary confections.
A must-try is the strawberry cheesecake, which is soft, fluffy, fragrant, and truly a delight. Although the crust may have been a tad dry, and the strawberry purée a bit too thick, neither dented the overall flavor profile and immaculate taste of the dessert. When we tell you we ascended after our first bites, we truly were one with the angels.
But now let us tell you about the things that made this cafe forgettable. With an awful view that looks out to nowhere relevant, you still have to call ahead to book a table in a poorly lit room, surrounded by a pretentious staff who thinks they’re better than you. Just order to go.
Dunwell Doughnuts (★★★★★) 222 Montrose Ave, Williamsburg
If you take the L line to Montrose Ave in Williamsburg, you’ll find this quaint little shop that has the BEST lavender lemonade you will ever try in your life and we can GUARANTEE that. If you’re not a lemonade person, they do offer seasonal coffees as well as the classics to go with their delectable vegan donuts.
Dunwell’s donuts are soft, light, and fluffy; crispy on the outside but chewy and moist on the inside, creating the perfect balance in texture. Employees arrive early in the morning to freshly bake their donuts and offer a variety of different flavors that rotate daily. One of their must-trys is the lemon blueberry pie donut, made with a homemade pie filling that perfectly encapsulates the tartness of the lemon while still capturing just the right amount of sweetness to complement the taste of the blueberry icing.
They also feature cashew-based, artisanal ice cream from Three Little Birds in the East Village. A wonderful perk of supporting this business is that it’s local and runs a cruelty-free establishment. The brand advocates that their mission is “to be the premier doughnut shop on planet Earth and reverently carry on the tradition of doughnut making in a manner that is both innovative and ethical.”
Overall, it is a wonderful place to visit once and end up loving for a lifetime.
Sweets By CHLOE. (★★★★★) formerly 185 Bleecker St, Greenwich Village
This review comes post-mortem, as the place has recently closed. But some of these desserts are still available at By CHLOE.’s other all-vegan locations, and who knows, maybe “Sweets” will make a comeback. This small bakery was located right next to its restaurant counterpart in the Village, and had some of the greatest vegan cakes (and cupcakes!) on offer. The baking there felt high-end and professional, all for a reasonable price. You’d imagine that a place with such a cute vibe would overcharge for food, but at Sweets by CHLOE., the aesthetic didn’t cost extra.
Whether you chose to sit at a booth or on the swinging chair by the window, you were sure to not only have a wonderful time eating but also talking to the staff and looking at their modern decor.
Another thing that made this place stand out was the quality of their food. For starters, their cookies were definitely a treat. Although their cinnamon espresso chocolate chip cookie was impossible to like, and even more impossible to bite into, their normal chocolate chip cookie was flawless in every aspect. It had just the right amount of crumble: enough for some crunch, but still chewy enough to immediately melt in your mouth. Containing the perfect ratio of chocolate chips, it had to be the best cookie we’ve ever had. It was DEFINITELY worth the money ($2.50).
As if this place could not have gotten any better, their delicious cupcakes and muffins blew their cookies out of the water. Their lemon poppyseed muffin was light and fluffy, the texture was perfect, and the poppyseeds beautifully complemented the lemon flavor. However, the star of the show was without question their raspberry chocolate cupcake. The raspberry frosting was beautifully piped, topped with a fresh berry, and accompanied by chocolate shavings. The raspberry flavor shined throughout the cupcake, perfectly balancing out the chocolate. The tart raspberry filling was genius and made the cupcake one of the most unique and arguably THE best food experiences we’ve had in our lives.
The only flaw in this near-perfect establishment was that it was credit card only. Good for the environment, perhaps, but to some it could be an inconvenience. Chloe, bring this place back!