It's high time that we discuss the exquisite joy that is pastry-eating at Locanda Verde in NYC.

I've been excited to visit this place for a long time, for three main reasons:

My customer-turned buddy too, Kelly Fink, works there as a baker.
A few visits ago, Ed Levine of Serious Eats said that their sweets could not be missed. You listen to a guy like this.
They have homemade pastries. Really, while #1 and #2 sweeten the deal, #3 alone would have brought me to this place.

yes, looking this good DOES hurt sometimes.So. After arriving in a mild-hurricane state (I had a train to catch, to visit another bakery, in 20 minutes, natch), I was able to quickly give Kelly a hug and nab a cinnamon sugar doughnut and an espresso chocolate scone. Basically, then I had to run.

But that was not the end of my Locanda Verde nirvana.

First, the scone. Dense, biscuity, and extremely moist, it was studded with little landmines of warm, lightly gooey bittersweet chocolate and nibbly little bits of espresso—all topped with a crunchy sugar coating. It was—because other words escaped me while eating it on the subway on my way to Grand Central—very, very good.

Next, the doughnut.

Doughnut lasted all the way to 125^th street on Metro North, but had a sweet and rapid demise as the train hurtled in the northerly direction. With a crispy exterior dusted with sandy sugar-and-cinnamon, the crust gave way to a soft, cakey treasure inside—an old-fashioned style doughnut with a rich, moist crumb and a full flavor that tasted something like heaven with a cafe au lait.