Features --> Restaurant Reviews
Cha Cha's In Boca Al Luppo
113 Mulberry Street
(btwn. Canal & Hester Sts.)
(212) 431-9755
www.littleitalynyc.com/chacha/
Ya know what I like? Dessert. Dessert is delicious. Sugar is sweet, and we need sugar to survive. We need iron too, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about dessert. I like dessert so much that I like it more than ketchup, which is saying a lot if you read
this review, which you probably did. Whoa man do I like dessert. Chris will tell you this. So will Stefan. As might Alex and Jeff, but they've haven't mentioned how much I like dessert as much as those other two guys have. Why just yesterday I ate some dessert. This afternoon also.
This brings me to Cha Cha's, where I ate dessert semi-recently with my friends Kelley, Stefan (different Stefan), Jenny and Ellie. I'm gonna cut through the suspense here: I liked it. I liked it because I like dessert. The fact that it was an especially good dessert was just a bonus. I got two things:
Good Old Slice of New York Style Cheesecake: This was very good and normal. I like thicker cheesecake better, and this was thicker. There wasn't anything on it or anything in it, but it was still freaking great. I think Kelley and Stefan had some and they liked it too. Who wouldn't, it was dessert.
Vanilla w/Chocolate Chip Gelatto: Jesus damn. This crap was good. I wasn't even hungry and I made myself eat all of it because a) it was good and b) I like dessert. Everyone had some of this including Ellie who's four months old. She even said her first words: "Goddamn I love dessert!" I just said "Cheers" and drank a thousand milkshakes.
Other people got things too, that I sampled. The high-lights:
Some Kind of Death by Chocolate Cake: I forget what it's exact name was, but it had all sorts of layers of chocolate, each with a taste, richness and texture all its own. It was so good I started falling asleep. Were you ever so full that you got really tired? Well, I did.
Strawberry Cheesecake: Stefan got this. It was good move on his part, even if it was the same thing as my cake only with some strawberries on top. It was stupid good. I had a sliver with strawberry gunk on it and it was sheer delight. Oops, did I fall into HEAVEN?!
Water: Whoa, good call. Sugar is good, but it's even better if you're continually cleansing your palate and tasting it for the first time over and over again like some kind of memory-impaired pig. Also ya gotta keep yourself hydrated so you don't die. That's just a general rule.
Cha-Cha: Nothin' was sweeter than Cha-Cha himself! Cha-Cha was the proprietor of Cha-Cha's, and according to his menu, is good friends with many celebrities including Rhea Perlman, Danny Aiello and Tony Danza. Such good friends, in fact, that he apparently co-created something with Tony Danza, though whether it was a movie, TV show, or any good I cannot
remember. Couldn't even find it on IMDB. Huh.
In all, Cha-Cha's gets a C6H10O4 on the molecular sugar scale. Definitely worth stopping by and sampling the wares. As it says on its unofficial website, Cha-Cha's "boasts the only outdoor garden café in Little Italy." Well said, I think.
- Geoff Haggerty
