Chillin' out max at Village Tart

Last weekend, AC and I met at Village Tart to catch up. Village Tart is a cute little desserterie/coffee shop/cafe run by Pichet Ong, the dessert genius behind such delights as Spot Dessert Bar. AC and I took a booth in the cafe and sat to chat.

For her, an iced latte with extra milk and a walnut cookie. The cookie was incredible-- oblong and free-form, dotted with walnuts, redolent of brown sugar, simply delightful.

Sweating iced latte

Walnut cookie-- homely, yet powerful

My choice was the beet salad, listed as "beets, grapefruit, candied pistachios, Greek yogurt." It turned out to be so much more, both in terms of taste and quantity. There was a hefty pile of red and golden beets, cooked slightly al dente and resting on a thin slick of mild Greek yogurt. Three grapefruit supremes triangulated the plate-- much sweeter than I expected the grapefruit to be, which was a pleasant surprise. There were little clusters of candied pistachios to provide crunch. And the whole thing was covered with some sort of spice dust, mysterious and tasty all at once. While the portion looks small in the picture, I almost couldn't finish the salad. For $9, not bad.

Plateful o' beets

And that was that. We caught up, ate, and relaxed. The laid-back server let us linger as long as we wanted, and we did. If you're looking for a chill place to, well, chill in Nolita, Village Tart will fit the bill. I'll be back to try some more of the sweets, for sure.

Village Tart
86 Kenmare Street at Mulberry Street
212-226-4980