Coffee & Treats in Watertown

Everyone needs a little sweet indulgence from time to time. Or, overindulgence perhaps. Enter the Chocolate Bar at The Langham Boston Hotel, an annual display of decadence that Bostonians can practically set their watches by. The ten month-long event kicks into high gear in September, runs through the bitter winter and on through the earliest parts of summer. But it’s not about knowing when the Chocolate Bar is happening, it’s about getting a reservation. The sweets-focused event only happens on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. inside The Langham Boston Hotel at the beautiful Café Fleuri. The all-you-can-indulge-in buffet is a dream for anyone with a sweet tooth, featuring all things chocolate from cupcakes and pudding to truffles and ice cream. Chocoholics can begin their afternoon with a sampling of small, dreamy portions of creatively (and artfully) designed confections, including petit fours, cookies, brownies, whoopie pies and mousse. Every sweet bite imaginable is on enormous, beautifully presented displays here, which fills the entire brightly lit dining room. There are even occasional healthy samplings of fruit to balance out the sugar overload. Just be sure to enjoy the chocolate paradise at a slow pace, so as not fill up too quickly from the rich assortment. Once you’ve got your bearings back, satisfy the secondary craving with a chocolate crêpe or chocolate crème brûlée over a hot cup of coffee – or, if you can, some hot chocolate – then head over to the fondue station. There’s fruit and marshmallows for dipping, or you can splurge further at the heavenly chocolate fountain nearby. That is, if you can stomach any more. Little kids will love the cotton candy display and ice cream bar, while their parents may prefer the decadently rich Langham chocolate croissant bread pudding and a variety of dessert-themed adult beverages. Discerning adults may also partake of six or seven dessert-themed alcoholic beverages. And if you can’t make it to the richly priced Chocolate bar, which runs $42 for adults and $29 for children aged five to twelve, Café Fleuri also hosts a weekly Sunday brunch where 20 to 30 of the chocolate confections are also enjoyed. Just don’t expect the grandeur of Saturday’s Chocolate Bar bacchanalia.

This is the first article in Amanda Maguire’s Vegan Guide to Boston series, which profiles Boston’s best vegan products and businesses. It can be tough to find vegan food in Boston—let alone vegan desserts. That’s what makes FoMu Ice Cream such a gem. Owned by Deena Jalal and Hin Tang, the shop has outposts in Allston and Jamaica Plain. I paid a visit to chat with Deena and, of course, sample their wide array of innovative, non-dairy flavors. Their signature ice creams are made from creamy coconut milk, but they also have nut-based flavors that use a blend of cashews and almonds. All of their ice creams contain natural, local, and organic ingredients whenever possible. Here's what Deena had to say about FoMu's crave-worthy ice cream and what makes it so special. GROUPON: What is FoMu's best-selling ice cream? DEENA JALAL: Salted caramel—by far! G: Could you tell us a little about the inspiration behind this flavor and whether you initially expected it to be so popular? DJ: Salted caramel is sort of like the new vanilla. We knew we had to make it—from scratch and with the best ingredients. G: Are there any new ice-cream flavors or products you're particularly excited about? I noticed you now have in-store bake shops. DJ: We have some really popular seasonal flavors that have come out, like our Almond Raspberry Crumble, Purple Mu, and Mango Lassi. We can't make enough of those! We also recently expanded our bakery production. We make all of our ice-cream inclusions from scratch and knew there was a lot of interest to get those directly to our customers. We really focus on making the best from-scratch goodies we can—that happen to be really accommodating to diverse diets. We just came out with a coconut-water sorbet that is so refreshing and unique. It's awesome in the heat. G: Here’s something we all want to know: what makes FoMu so insanely good? DJ: [Laughs] It's magic. It's really a combination of taking awesome ingredients, making things from scratch (which is really hard to do with any dairy ice cream), and churning them with minimal air so that flavors stay intact and the texture is rich and lovely. G: Why did you opt to go plant-based with your ice cream and baked goods, as opposed to using dairy and eggs? DJ: We are huge foodies and into alternative foods. The premium options were lacking in the alternative-ice-cream space, and not using dairy does allow us to craft a super-pure product. G: What has been your best moment as a business owner at FoMu? DJ: Seeing people, especially kids, have ice cream for the first time and love it. G: When you're not making Banoffee Pie, Cardamom Pistachio, or Thai Chili Peanut ice cream, what are you cooking at home? DJ: Oh my goodness—anything we haven't tried before. We love our CSA for that reason. We get amazing produce and get creative with it. We especially love ethnic food and try to emulate our favorite dishes. FoMu Ice Cream is located at 481 Cambridge St. in Allston and 617 Centre St. in Jamaica Plain. To visit via public transit, take the Green Line B Train to Harvard Avenue Station for the Allston store, or take the Orange Line to Green Street Station for the Jamaica Plain location. You can also check out FoMu’s online store. Photos by Aaron Scott Hungry for more? Check Groupon for deals on vegan and vegetarian restaurants in your city, or take a look at these other animal-free stories. The Sexy Vegan on the Sexiest Foods Around Blogger Brian L. Patton (aka The Sexy Vegan) definitively determines the sexiest fruit, spice, utensil, dinner date, and other sexy food items. The Spiralizer Lets You Play with Your Food (And Eat It, Too) It’s almost too fun to watch (and eat) zucchini spiralized into noodles, potatoes into curled ribbons, and carrots into twisty threads. The World’s Best Vegan Restaurants, from the Man Behind HappyCow From Fort Lauderdale to Berlin, find out where a world traveler flies to eat at the best vegan restaurants in the world. Terry Hope Romero Is Changing the Weird, Sexist Notion That Men Cannot Enjoy Salad This recipe for Backyard Buffalo Caesar Salad is hearty enough for the manliest of men.

Like any food, the best ice cream is all a matter of personal taste and preference. Luckily, Boston offers plenty of options to explore, which means lots of tasty trials to learn what flavors suit you best. With a dozen stores in and around Boston, J.P. Licks might just be the ice cream shop that Bostonians think of first when they’re craving a scoop of the sweet stuff. The 30-year-plus company, which began in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, has a fiercely loyal clientele, who swear by their fresh ingredients and proprietary formula. During the summer, patrons can grab a scoop of delicious fresh peach ice cream, but they won’t find the seasonal flavor on the menu in, say, December. That’s okay, though, because tempting options like pumpkin custard or cranberry orange sorbet take its place when the weather changes. J.P. Licks also offers frozen yogurt at their locations, makes an assortment of ice cream cakes and pies, and even roasts their own coffee beans. Emack & Bolio’s is another local creation, which began as a small operation in 1975 and has since turned into a sizeable franchise, with a dozen shops in Massachusetts, including four in Boston proper. The original owners claim to have invented the flavored cone in 1980 -- cones covered with cookie pieces or sugary cereals, or dipped in chocolate and rolled in any number of candies, nuts, or other sweets. Creating your own unique ice cream and cone combination is half the fun of getting ice cream at your local Emack & Bolio’s. Another Boston ice cream institution is Ron’s Gourmet Ice Cream and 20th Century Bowling. This Hyde Park neighborhood spot has been churning out homemade ice cream since 1974, serving it up as people line up to bowl a few rounds of candlepin. As you can imagine, the joint ice cream parlor and bowling alley is popular with families and large birthday parties. In addition to ice cream, homemade ice cream cakes are also available, which makes any celebration at Ron’s that much easier to plan. Of course, there’s any number of large chain ice cream and yogurt shops to be found in Boston. But this city takes pride in their history, even when it comes to decades old ice cream parlors, and it’s always a treat to eat the same flavors, at the same shop, as your family did a generation ago.