94 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo NY 14201
Web: Sweet Tooth
Phone: 716.884.2520
Rating:
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In the first part of our two-part visit to food and drink destinations on Buffalo's Elmwood Avenue, we started at the Burchfield Penney Art Center's Orion Cafe and made our way down to the Towne Restaurant. This part looks briefly at three additional locations: the dessert shop Sweet Tooth, the beer and gourmet snack shop Village Beer Merchant, and the cafe-like Globe Market. They have nothing in common with one another save geography and interest, though all three aspire to bring a little something different to this strip; one is an old-fashioned sweets parlor, the next a place to find hard-to-find European brews, and the last a preppy place to have a good lunch.
1. Sweet Tooth: After last year's Taste of Buffalo, we were genuinely excited to visit Sweet Tooth (94 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo NY 14201, 716.884.2520); as we'd left the festival, we'd used our final remaining tickets on a piece of deliciously dense, raspberry Sacher Torte sold by Sweet Tooth, and so after a dinner several blocks away, we enthusiastically plopped ourselves down at a table after ordering two different but equally interesting cakes here. The small place wasn't especially impressive inside, only a few other people were there, and for some reason, we both developed a funny feeling that coming here wasn't a great idea.
And boy, were we right. Both of the cakes we ordered had looked great in the display case, but we couldn't bring ourselves to finish them: the Carrot Cake was somewhat dry, light on everything from spice to carrot to cream cheese flavor, and merely a step below okay. By comparison, the Chocolate Decadence - a four-layer sponge cake with whipped chocolate ganache layers, chocolate buttercream frosting, and everything from chocolate chips to drizzles on top - was shockingly bad: as our otherwise nice photo shows, the cake and its frosting layers were dry and poorly flavored, breaking off into rough chunks, and though we had glasses of water to drink with the cake, this one would have needed more than a good soak to recover. We wound up tossing the remains of both cake slices in the trash rather than finishing them, and we never do this unless we'd been served something stale. We'd rate this place 1.5 stars, and then only on the strength of the Sacher Torte, not these other cakes: even if they were just rare stale items, we wouldn't go back again.
2. Village Beer Merchant: Our next stop on Elmwood was Village Beer Merchant (547 Elmwood, 716.881.1080), a store - not a bar - that we've been anxious to check out for some time. As fans of a certain Belgian beer type called gueuze, we're always on the lookout for places that offer versions that aren't easy to find in the United States, and Village Beer Merchant had two we hadn't tried before: both well-regarded, the first was the richly lemony St. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition, and the other a similar variant from Lindemans called Cuvée René. Notably, the Cuvée René was marked at $11 but we discovered after the fact that we were charged $12; the smaller, untagged St. Louis was $7. There are some pricing and labeling benefits to shopping at larger retailers.
That aside, we liked what we found in Village Beer Merchant: refilling stations for growlers, a walk-in fridge with ready-to-serve beers and kegs, and nicely organized racks of high-end snacks, chocolate, and other candies - even bakeware and bread mixes were available. It mightn't rival the area's Consumer Beverage Centers in sheer numbers of options, but it's still a nicely appointed specialty beer shop that offers many bottles we haven't seen elsewhere locally, as well as a fair collection of better-known brands that will definitely appeal to local beer fans. Creative types looking to assemble their own gift baskets could put together complete gourmet packages without leaving this store.
3. Globe Market: Last but not least was the Globe Market (762 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo, NY 14222, 716.886.5242), a sandwich and salad shop that also offers a small collection of specialty foods, fresh-baked breads, and cheeses for sale on the side. While we haven't eaten enough at the Globe to render a rating for the place, we're leaning positive at this point: we liked the small but clean venue, particularly its prominent and attractive display case of ready-to-serve gourmet and near-gourmet dishes, as well as the largely Italian and American deli-style menu, and generally the quality of the items we tried.
A highlight was the Grilled Veggie Sandwich ($7.75), a sliced baguette with grilled and marinated eggplant, red peppers, and zucchini mixed with balsamic vinegar and pesto inside, a layer of goat cheese above them. The bread - again, made on site - was very good, as were the generously proportioned, properly roasted vegetables, mild goat cheese, and pine nut-based pesto, all of which worked together to form a sandwich that we'd order again any time.
We were pleased but not blown away by the Strawberry Shortcake ($5.50), twin layers of soft but otherwise scone-like biscuit with cut strawberries and whipped cream in the center; it was perhaps a "proper" presentation, but due to its light sweetness and lack of any little sparkling touch like syrup, it wasn't one that would stand out in a crowd or on the tongue. Then there was the Quiche ($4.50), made with what tasted to be separately whipped egg yolks and whites, blended together into an interestingly dual-textured slice with broccoli, roasted red peppers, and goat cheese. A little too light on flavor, the quiche was only fine, not bad. We plan to return at some point in the future for a full review.
Though we've highlighted a number of Elmwood food, drink, and snack shops this weekend, they are of course only a start: the street also hosts smaller, more limited locations of Williamsville's Wasabi and Cafe Aroma, as well as Elmwood-only venues such as Nektar, Cecelia's, and Casa-di-Pizza. We'll have much more to say about other Elmwood locations in the near future.
