Chocoholic: Audabon Bakeshop’s Valentine’s Day Specials

Chocoholic is a column by Tina Kartika about all things sweet in Philly.

Around Valentine’s Day, you can really feel the love in the air because pink hues and heart shapes dominate the landscape everywhere you go.  Audabon Bakeshop in Chinatown, known for its macarons, participates in the Valentine’s Day festivities with strawberry cheesecake brick toast and many flavors of adorably decorated macarons.

Audabon’s brick toasts come in two sizes: mini and regular, although the mini brick toast is probably enough for two people. For those who are unfamiliar with brick toasts, they are simply thick slices of bread. Between two slices of Audabon’s lightly sweetened toast is a pastry cream filling, banana slices, and fruit jam or compote. The sandwich is topped with ice cream, more fruit jam/compote, almond slices, and two Pocky sticks. Audabon generally switches the components of the brick toast every other week, and in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, the brick toast comes with cheesecake pastry cream, strawberry jam, three generous scoops of strawberry ice cream, two strawberry wafers, a strawberry macaron, and strawberry Pocky sticks. Despite the multiple strawberry elements, the strawberry flavor did not overwhelm my taste buds and the brick toast was delicious and filling.

As for the macarons, Audabon has six flavors for its Valentine’s Day lineup. The matcha green tea macarons are decorated with flying bees, the lemon raspberry cheesecake ones with kissable lips, the champagne and strawberries with ladybugs, and the earl grey chocolate with hearts on top. The dark chocolate raspberry and salted caramel espresso macarons are not decorated. Audabon’s macarons are smaller than those of its competitors, but its flavors are unique that they appeal to the adventurous. Audabon switches its macaron flavors every week, except for matcha green tea which currently is a regular lineup.

Audabon still serves its regular lineup of beverages and other desserts such as salted caramel pudding, black sesame panna cotta, and green tea oreo mousse for the Valentine’s day weekend. With its inspirational quote wall and comfortable atmosphere, Audabon is a great place to satisfy your sweet tooth and hang out or have a casual date at the same time.

-Tina Kartika