Cocoa Bakery’s Second Coming in the Heights
Just checking, Cocoa Bakery fans. Have you had the chance to check out the second location in the Heights? They opened at 475 Central Avenue back in summer 2019. At 2,500 square feet it’s triple the size of the first Cocoa Bakery downtown on Grand Street. What a welcome venture this has been for the Heights, for bakery aficionados and for fans of Jessica Isaacs, the owner and creative mastermind behind Cocoa Bakery.
The baking pedigree of Ms. Isaacs is well known at this point. Almost two decades at the helm of pastries at Nobu, Nobu Next Door and Sushi Samba in NYC, all preceded from a stint honing her craft at Le Calandre in Italy. Since opening the original Cocoa Bakery in 2013, her cake truffles, cupcakes and custom cakes became instant obsessions for folks in JC and beyond. What is extra nice about the new space is that affords not only a more spacious seating area but a larger kitchen for Isaac to create such a huge and delectable range of desserts. The only issue? Deciding what to choose from.
This locale includes room to make homemade ice cream and ice cream sandwiches in a delightful array of flavors including not only the standards but stuff like blueberry, gingersnap, coconut, raspberry chocolate chip, almond cookie, gluten free chocolate, etc. Let’s not forget to mention perfectly rendered versions of classic treats like cheese danish and whoopie pies. On the other side there are innovative treats for vegans and those on a gluten free diet. Whether that describes you or not, you must try the Japanese cheesecake – a crustless, whipped delicacy minus the flour but big on taste. There are tons of cookies large and small – and you can even order a small bag of assorted ones. And yes, the beloved cupcakes and cake truffles are there, along with the epic chocolate peanut butter pie.
Bravo to Jessica Isaacs. Her talent, perseverance and passion is such a sterling example of how small business owners make JC such a fun place to live. So go and treat yourself – it has been a rough couple of years and we all need dessert!
https://cocoabakerycafe.com/