One of the stops for the Dishcrawl in North Park tomorrow will be Swoon Dessert Bar. I was lucky enough to get a little preview of Swoon to see what kind of dessert offerings they have at this dessert bar. I was excited to try it out since I’ve been wanting to visit for quite awhile.

[scottish caramel tea]
I started off with a hot tea to ease into the dessert tasting that came a bit later. This was a Pu-erh tea …

Hot drinks and booze. What more could you ask for this holiday season? Islands is offering these specialty drinks just in time to help you “get through the holidays” and I took it upon myself to try them out. You know, for you guys. For research. Totally.

There are three coffees to choose from.

[from l-r: cocomo, calypso, irish]
Each one brings a little something different to the coffee. If you come and have all three together (it is the holidays after all, …

Let me just say right off the bat… I was skeptical. A gluten free restaurant with baked goods and regular food? Could this possibly be any good? As someone who doesn’t shun gluten at all and doesn’t have food allergies, I wasn’t sure how this whole experience would go down. But since I got invited to come in and check it out, I was willing to take the risk. And I have to say… I was pleasantly surprised.

[inside the cafe]
2Good2Be …

I’ve had kind of a love and hate relationship with coffee the past few months. I like to have coffee, but for awhile, I was unable to have it at all. It really tended to tie my stomach up in knots and drinking a cup of coffee made my stomach unhappy for a whole day. I laid off the stuff for awhile until I started taking probotics on a regular basis to help ease my stomach woes. I’m happy to …

I used to frequent Big Joy Family Bakery back in the day but hadn’t been there in quite some time. To be honest, I kind of forgot about it. Until I saw these beautiful, brightly colored french macarons on CC’s (one of many posts!) and CAB’s blogs, reminding me all about this place!
Course, it took me awhile to finally make it over here. But so glad I did!

I love, love, love the colors on these beautiful little airy cookies.
Let’s see if …

Kicking off the summer season in true The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf style, the SoCal coffee retailer will debut two limited-time Ice Blended beverage flavors, Cookies and Cream and Espresso and Cream, and return with the customer favorite Mocha Mint Chip, during its open house May 10th from 4-7PM. Guests who visit their local The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf during this window will receive a complimentary 12 oz Iced Blended specialty drink in one of the ice …

Influx Cafe is a cute little place tucked into Golden Hills. I’ve read about it tons of times but never went before. I had some time to kill last Saturday afternoon and decided that what I needed were cupcakes. I heard the ones at Influx were pretty good so I had to pay a visit and find out for myself.
Influx isn’t too far down from Pizzeria Luigi’s in Golden Hills. It’s off Broadway, one of the main thoroughfares in Downtown …