SWEET SPOTS Sugary snacks and dessert destinations

SUGARY SNACKS AND DESSERT DESTINATIONS

ROSABEES

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROSABEES

BY GINA SMITH

There’s no question that life in Asheville can be sweet — especially when you take time to treat yourself to the dreamy, sugar-drenched confections crafted by the city’s talented bakers, ice cream makers and dessert wizards. From handmade artisan chocolates to over-the-top ice cream sundaes, every Asheville neighborhood offers plenty of businesses set on satisfying that sweet tooth.

• Xpress readers have long agreed that Well-Bred Bakery &

Café, with locations in Weaverville, Biltmore Village and, most recently, in the downtown Grove Arcade, is one of their sweethearts when it comes to gorgeous and tempting cakes, pies and pastries — the business has earned top honors in the

Best of WNC polls since 2014.

• Also downtown, Old Europe has been charming pastry lovers since 1994 with everything from early morning croissants and Danishes to elegant late-night bites of cheesecake and pot de creme. If you’re in North Asheville, be sure to visit Geraldine’s Bakery for its popular scratch-made yeast doughnuts, shortbread cookies, eclairs, pies and more. In West Asheville, don’t sleep on the Southern cakes, cupcakes and pies (whole

or by the slice) at AVL Cake Lady. Or check out the large and creative menu at Short Street Cakes, which offers options like tres leches cake with fresh fruit, glazed ginger stack cake and several cakes flavored with locally made beer.

• In the River Arts District, pastry chef Melissa Gray, whom some may recognize from the second season of the Netflix baking competition “Sugar Rush,” uses her Hawaiian restaurant,

RosaBees, to showcase a menu of stunning and innovative desserts. Always popular are the hexagon-shaped s’mores with smoked chocolate, house-made graham crackers and marshmallows in rotating flavors.

• It’s easy to play it cool in Asheville with its many fun and delicious ice cream options. The Hop and Ultimate Ice

Cream are longtime local favorites, offering house-made dairy and vegan ice creams, milkshakes and sundaes at multiple locations. If cookies-and-cream is more your thing, swing by

Sunshine Sammies on South Lexington Avenue downtown for fat sandwiches of freshly made cookies and handcrafted ice cream. For a wilder kind of chill, head to the west side of town to 10th Muse Comfort Food for unexpected dessert combos that dress up soft-serve ice cream with treats like funnel cakes, bubble waffles, house-made doughnuts and deep-fried Oreos. Also in West Asheville, Whirly Bird Ice

Cream and Milkshakes employs a liquid-nitrogen wand to create custom-made dairy and nondairy flavor combinations.

• Of course, for many, chocolate is the ultimate comfort food, and Asheville delivers. French Broad Chocolate approaches theme park territory with behind-the-scenes tours at its

Chocolate Factory on Riverside Drive and a dizzying array of bonbons and bars, plus pastries, ice cream, custards, cookies and drinkable chocolates at its huge downtown Chocolate

Lounge. Also, downtown, seek out the award-winning truffles at Chocolate Fetish or pop into Asheville Chocolate for handmade Belgian chocolate confections and Italian gelatos and sorbettos.

4th Generation of Bakery Connoisseurs

828.252.9330 840 Merrimon Ave GERALDINE’S BAKERY 7:00am–1:00pm Everyday

GERALDINE'S SINCE 2013 ASHEVILLE, NC