Dessert Gallery's Sara Brook is thankful for the rewards of her sweet tooth

Painted prominently on the interior walls of the DESSERT GALLERY in a font reminiscent of the pastel scribble found on schmaltzy picture frames cooing about friendship, sisters, and love are the words, "Friendship is a delicate combination of admiration, trust, empathy, two forks and one dessert." That's exactly how I would describe the atmosphere at the Dessert Gallery, a café specializing in, drum roll please ... desserts.

Owner, Sara Brook, established the Dessert Gallery in 1995. "I wanted some place that would make me smile and even chuckle," Brook said.

The brilliant purple and pink wall colors, the funky art deco tables, the festive summer beach themed décor, replete with beach balls dangling from the ceiling, fishing nets and blown up seahorse flotation devices, and finally the relentless broadcasting of saccharine '50s sock-hop music like "Yakkity Yak (Don't Talk Back)" and "Lollipop" could definitely coerce even the most serious depressives to crack a smile.

The desserts, which range from a delectable and wide diversity of cakes, cookies and pies, are personal creations of the owner. Not that one can really go wrong with desserts, but considering that Brook spent much of her early youth working hard to earn her Brownie and Girl Scout badges in cooking, you can trust her desserts are out of the ordinary.

Some of the varieties include Chocolate Raspberry Cake, Fudge Pecan Pie, Lemon Vacherin, a meringue shell filled with lemon mousse, Southern Comfort Cake, Chocolate Chunk Cookies dipped in chocolate, and my personal favorite, the Tiramisu Toffee Cake, which are white cake layers soaked with espresso, caramel and frosted with creamy mascarpone and toffee bits. Salivating yet?

If you're the health-conscious type and are looking for low-fat desserts, the Dessert Gallery may not be the place for you. While they stock a few healthy alternative desserts, like Low-Fat Lemon Poppy Seed cake, Ms. Brook is all in favor of "rich, fattening, all-American, happy desserts." However, if you can splurge and let loose, just this once, then there's plenty that the Dessert Gallery can offer.

Each slice of cake or pie ($5-$7) can serve at least two people, and therefore provides the perfect medium of intimacy for dates or friends as you share a dessert. For instance, two people could cooperatively finish a white chocolate and dark chocolate multi-layered cake saturated with Oreos called "The Big O."

I think Brook would agree with the sentiment expressed by an anonymous writer who once wrote, "It says something about our times when you rarely see the word 'sinful' except to describe a really good dessert."

In case you and your date might come across a lull in your conversation, the back counters of the Dessert Gallery are piled high with board games like Connect Four, Monopoly, Life, Scattergories, Trivial Pursuit, Outburst and a slew of other entertaining diversions. Although some of the game pieces were missing and we found red hotels, thimbles, dice, and checker pieces scattered throughout the counter, part of the amusement could be in finding all the necessary parts just to play a game.

All of Dessert Gallery's patrons are not there purely for the luscious cakes and pies. The establishment also offers box lunches with a variety of sandwiches, salads and wraps, such as the Calypso Chicken Salad Sandwich ($5.75), California Turkey Wrap ($5.75), and Chicken Muffuletta Salad ($6.95).

The overall impression of their lunch fare is that while they use high-quality ingredients like Boar's Head Premium Deli Meats and fresh vegetables for their dishes, the chefs have not quite mastered the art of seasoning. For instance their Chicken Pot Pie featured healthy cuts of carrots and onions and tender chunks of chicken white meat, but the flavor was starkly bland. Salt, soy sauce, curry, confectioners sugar, or anything with flavor would have added some spice to the dish.

I would recommend that patrons stick to what the Dessert Gallery knows and does best. In the immortal words of the one-hit-quote-wonder Ernestine Ulmer, "Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first."

Also see: Desserts

Author Notes:

James Sparks contributes and publishes news editorial to http://www.1st-in-steaks.com. Great tips on buying top quality meats, steaks and seafood from the finest ranchers and butchers.

	Desserts
Dessert Gallery's Sara Brook is thankful for the rewards of her sweet tooth