A Special Place is Gone

Many years ago, when I was living in Boston some dear friends told me that when I moved to New York I had to try this place called City Bakery. It was known for its incredible hot chocolate and HOMEMADE marshmallows.

I found the place and they were right! The hot chocolate was incredible. I have not had Swiss Miss since...there is no going back after great hot chocolate. The funny, totally awesome and at the same time dangerous thing happened to me. I ended up working around the corner from City Bakery. It was amazing that while my colleagues were taking cigarette breaks that I wasn't using my break time to frequent the chocolate indulgence around the corner, but I was pretty good at staying away.

Then I moved away and when I would go back to the city to visit, one of my best friends had become addicted to the City Bakery, in my absence. She insisted that we visit it everyday I was in town. So like your favorite coffee place that you frequent daily...we went to City Bakery everyday! One or two years in a row, I visited during the week of Valentine's Day and City Bakery did a different flavor to enhance their hot chocolate for the entire month of February...so everyday we had a different twist on their mouthwatering hot chocolate.

City Bakery made moving back from Paris palpable because Paris had such amazing hot chocolates. City Bakery was where I went to cheer myself up when a boy had dumped me . It is where I went to celebrate a momentous occasion.

The City Bakery opened in 1990 on 18th Street around the corner from 5h Avenue. It closed it's doors in 2019 and it isn't until a few months later...that I share this great sadness with you that a wonderful institution is gone. It makes me sad. I loved the place!!!

My saving grace is that my favorite hot chocolate from Paris was at a place called Laduree, which has hopped the pond and landed on West Broadway near my old home in Soho. It is equally fabulous...but I want to pay my respects to City Bakery, which will always hold a special place in my heart.