• Del Posto

  85 Tenth Ave.; 212-497-8090

  In a city currently wallowing in trendy, copycat chocolate desserts (warm chocolate tart, anyone?), it’s refreshing to get back to the basics. That’s the idea behind the minimalist �chocolate tasting� at Mario Batali’s elaborate new restaurant, Del Posto. Three giant chunks of chocolate are wheeled to the table, flanked by numerous bottles of exotic rum. The chocolates might be from Italy, or Ecuador, or France, and as he cuts off great hunks, the loquacious waiter describes their various ethereal qualities, each one slightly different from the other. Then he pours three types of rum, from Barbados, or Haiti, or Jamaica, each of them also ethereal and distinctive. The soft, boozy sweetness of the rum perfectly complements the hard, tart qualities of the chocolate. The combination is exotic and also refreshingly elemental, as if you’re tasting something for the very first time.

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