We barely spotted Spot, the dessert bar off of St. Marks where Pichet Ong creates Asian American fusion desserts, ice creams, and bubble teas. Located below street level, it's a pretty small place, with wood paneling that is evocative of a Wild West saloon, artificial turf in the entryway, and a ton of college-age kids loudly getting a sugar fix.

For 20 bucks we got three dessert "tapas," which looked like full-size desserts to us—a hell of a deal. An avocado "parfait" was three scoops of what tasted like avocado yogurt, divided with a chile-chocolate cookie similar to a florentine, and garnished with calamansi "whip" (a euphemism for foam, just like we saw in SF where people were calling them "emulsifications"). It was our favorite of the three.

Another strong dessert: the yuzu "eskimo." Slices of what resembled a semifreddo, made with yuzu-flavored cream and a chocolate cookie crust layer, were fanned out with a side of strawberries, "Oreo dirt" (crushed Oreos), and little chocolate pearls. The chocolate with the extremely tart yuzu was a great pairing.

The butterscotch "torchon" was a bit of a dud. Not sure why an underset crème brûlée was called a torchon, but the caramelized ginger pineapple with Thai tea foam and macadamia nuts that came on the side was righteous. Despite the miss on the torchon, we really liked the desserts here, none of which were overly sweet, and all of which felt very creative. The overall concept, where you can get some fancy dessert without having to deal with the fuss or cost of going to an upscale place (noted by the New York Times), is refreshing.

Posted on Monday, July 19th, 2010 by Lessley Anderson and Roxanne Webber in CHOW Tour: Innovation 1 Comment