Whoa Daddy!

Photo courtesy of Shisso.org

I finally made it to Beard Papa's last night and thus began a spiral into gluttony. After an "okay" dinner at Restaurant 2117 (uninspiring, I might elaborate at a later date), I needed something sweet. Planning to grab some fro yo at Big Chill, I was luckily drawn to the strip mall across the street from the restaurant. And there it stood: Beard Papa. I knew there was one in Hollywood, but to stumble upon one on Sawtelle - what a surprise! This place has received quite a lot of buzz since it first opened in Osaka, Japan in 1999, and recently it's been spreading all over the world, and thank g-d for that!

So I walked into the store and was faced with a decision: vanilla, chocolate or carmel. I chose vanilla, my friend chose carmel, and we decided we'd share. After requesting such from the uniformed ladies behind the counter, our order was recited back to us in unison:

"1 vanilla, 1 carmel!"

"1 vanilla, 1 carmel, thank you!"

Oh joy! What an entrance for these little puffs (which disappeared in about 30 seconds. A tragically short but dramatic life). The dough is light, fluffy and flaky. The cream (a mixture of custard and whipped cream) is soft, creamy and incredibly flavorful - and there's plenty of it. One bite and the custard is spilling out of the puff, and I was loving every minute of it! I was surprised that it didn't feel heavy. One generally associates cream puffs with weighing you down, heavy custard put me in bed please! It wasn't that way at all. The vanilla was sweet and simple. Not too much vanilla flavor, just enough. The carmel was really divine. Much richer, but certainly the better of the two.

Okay, finished. Now what? Well we had to order a chocolate just to see what we were missing! This was definitely the weakest of the three, but still very tasty. A rich, almost ganache tasting chocolate. Yum!

Listen to the hype, people! This place is divine!

Beard Papa Sweet's Cafe

2130 Sawtelle Blvd.

Los Angels, 90025

(310) 479-6665