yaokui: Demel New York

Address: The Plaza Retail Collection, One West 58th Street, New York

Fax: 212-572-0989

http://www.demel.at

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, all I want to do is to hang out with close friends, drink tea/coffee and eat cake. But finding a nice tea, coffee house for dessert is not as easy as it sounds. Most of the tea houses/dessert places I like have closed: Toraya near Central Park (closed long time ago), Amai tea house near Union Square and Tafu at Midtown East. So my quest for a new tea place brought us to The Demel at the Plaza today and it was just the perfect tea/dessert place I was looking for!

Founded in 1786 in Vienna, Austria, Demel was the imperial and royal court confectionery for the Austrian-Hungary monarchy before it collapsed in 1918. Demel lived on, went through several change of ownership before it finally became part of DO & CO group, an international restaurant/catering company. There are only three branches of The Demel in the world, two in Austria and one here in New York City at the Plaza (the only shop outside of Austria, thank you The Plaza!)

Gan had Sachertorte: very traditional Austrian chocolate cake and I couldn't resist the Russische Punschtorte: biscuit/vanilla cream/rum. They also offer finger sandwiches so some of us ordered that as well. If you love coffee you will definitely love the Milan coffee here; it's incredibly smooth, possibly one of the smoothest/best tasting cappuccino -like coffee in New York City.

The Demel is definitely one of New York City's best kept secret. It's great to have pastry shop like this in New York City which makes amazing Austrian pastries, and we get to eat it without actually going to Austria. Now we just need Laduree to open a shop in New York City and I'll be so happy.