After I traveled to Charleston in grad school, I had such wonderful things to say about the city that my parents were inspired to travel there themselves. It was my mother (who has a major sweet tooth) who told me about Kaminsky's, a bar that serves desserts. This, I think, is the best type of place in the world, because sometimes you just need a cocktail and a piece of cake.
I knew that I wanted to find Kaminsky's during our trip, but my mother couldn't remember the name of the restaurant. Fortunately, its downtown location made it easy to find. So one afternoon during our trip, we stopped into Kaminsky's for a snack. We found that Kaminsky's has a long wait list in the evenings, but when we went in at 3 there was plenty of seating - plus the sugar rush rid me of my desire for an afternoon nap.
The waitstaff helped me make the very difficult decision of what to order. Kaminsky's doesn't have a dessert menu. Instead they have a dessert case, which is refilled throughout the day. The waitstaff helps to describe the options and to offer personal recommendations. In the end, Charles picked the Snickers Chocolate Cake, and I had the Tollhouse Pie. Charles is a purist. He wants chocolate and lots of it. This cake was rich and moist and the ice cream helped to balance out all of the chocolate. I loved the Tollhouse Pie - it had a great richness to it, and was loaded with chocolate chips, pecans, drizzled with caramel and topped with ice cream. The best part? It was served warm. Perfection, I need to learn how to make this at home.
Are you aware of any other dessert bars in the US? Let me know in the comments - I love this restaurant concept.
Kaminsky's is right in the heart of Charleston's Historic District, next to the market, at 78 North Market Street.
