The Brooklyn eatery that calls itself the world’s first avocado bar is crossing into new territory Tuesday: dessert.
Avocaderia, an avocado-centric bar that drew long lines and incited some parody when it opened at the Industry City food hall in April, has added an avocado-chocolate confection to the toast, salads and smoothies on its menu.
The first batch of “avochocolate mousse,” as Avocaderia spokeswoman Liza Zusman called it, has three ingredients: organic Hass avocados from Mexico, melted chocolate with a one-to-one ratio of cocoa to milk, and coconut milk.
“We currently have no dessert on the menu, so we decided to add something sweet and refreshing for the summer season,” Avocaderia co-founder Francesco Brachetti said Monday.
A thick, creamy mixture that resembles pudding, “avochocolate mousse” tastes distinctly of the restaurant’s star fruit, Brachetti said: “You can really taste the avocado. First is a strong taste of coconut and chocolate. Then the avocado stays in your mouth for 10 minutes afterward.”
The dessert’s three ingredients are mixed by hand and chilled in a refrigerator for at least three hours, Brachetti said.
“It’s very much like a tiramisu… You need to let it sit,” said the Italian transplant who developed the avocado-chocolate mousse concept with his two co-founders and compatriots, Alberto Gramini and Alessandro Biggi.
Gramini, the restaurant’s chef, has tested the recipe on both sides of the Atlantic, Brachetti said: “We always try the dishes in Italy and New York.”
With no added sugar, Avocaderia’s take on an Italian dessert staple is a “relatively healthy” one, he said. A vegan option with cocoa powder instead of chocolate is in the works, he added.
At $6.95 a bowl, “avochocolate mousse” isn’t the world’s most photogenic dessert, but that, according to Brachetti, isn’t the point.
“Before they only talked about avocado as a trendy Instagram fruit, and now people are starting to understand it’s actually healthy to eat avocado,” the avocado evangelist said.
