All cause of Gregory’s Gourmet Desserts in Oakland, California. They’re open to the public one day a week: Wednesdays at 11:00AM (They close when they sell out.) Gregory’s is first & foremost a wholesale bakery, catering to hotels & restaurants. But due to public demand, they decided to open their doors to common streetwalkers — one day a week.

Ambiance

Their priority still lies with their corporate clients: They don’t have a “store-front” for the public. No fancy glass cases to show off their sweets like expensive jewelry. You basically walk down some stairs to a back room of the kitchen where they sell you cookies right off the baking trays.

No fancy printed menu behind the cash register (no cash register, either.) Instead, you walk by a human-sized dry-erase whiteboard just outside the door, filled from edge-to-edge with a huge list of cookies, cakes & cobblers. It’s not even pretty handwriting. It looks like I wrote it — And if you’ve ever had the misfortune of getting something handwritten from me, you know how shocking that is.

Fuck it. They don’t make menus, they make desserts. And you want ‘em.

My findings

• Key lime pie
• Peach cobbler
• 3 dark chocolate coffee cookies
• White chocolate blueberry oatmeal cookie. Tons of blueberry flavor. This is coming from a guy who’s still recovering from a cold.
• Peanut butter chocolate chip cookie
• Snickerdoodle

All for me.

Chocolate mousse topped with strawberries; Raspberry mousse with whipped cream, Lemon mousse topped with blueberries; Triple chocolate brownie a la mode, Apple cinnamon crisp a la mode, Bread pudding with raisins & vanilla, with buttery whiskey sauce:

Done.

(Actually, there’s still some left in the photo above, but it really was completely finished before we left. I wouldn’t lie to you.)

Quick tip

It’s a good idea to drop blueberries onto the batter once it’s on your pan/griddle, rather than mix them in with all your other ingredients. Otherwise, you end up with grey-ish blue streaks through your pancakes and everyone will hate you.

If you haven’t tried a hamburger with avocado or prosciutto with fresh mozzarella, you’re missing out.

1. 1/3 of an Asiago cheese bagel with cream cheese from Noah’s
2. 1/3 of a blueberry bagel with blueberry cream cheese from Noah’s
3. half a See’s milk chocolate bar with toffee
4. two big bowls of my mom’s Chinese cabbage soup (which is a lot like Russian cabbage soup except not nearly as sour, and way tastier!)
5. five plates of romaine salad with goma dressing, yes, FIVE. Goma dressing is THAT amazing, it makes eating plain salad not only tolerable but quite enjoyable. You can find goma dressing at your local japanese grocery store.

nature’s candy:

• Red, seedless grapes
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Strawberries (organic)
• Dried fruit bars

human’s candy:

• Cappuccino almonds
• Lemon honey almonds
• Espresso gelato
• Dark chocolate almond Laceys (review)
• Espresso chocolate chip cookies

all that non-candy stuff:

• White mushrooms
• Portobello mushrooms
• Sliced pepperoni
• Sliced prosciutto
• Uncooked shrimp
• Wild citrus salmon
• Pizza sauce
• Fresh mozzarella (ovalini)
• Fresh mozzarella (bocconcini)
• Whole wheat pita bread (organic)
• Herb bread (organic)

I don’t always have hours to slave over a homemade pizza (but I wish I did). So lately I’ve been using pita bread as the crust for some quick mini-pizzas. I have some leftover chicken, pesto and smoked mozzarella and a really great BBQ sauce (which I’ll review later) so I’m able to mix up the toppings quite a bit. One of my favorites: marinara sauce, fresh mozzarella, pepperoni and shrimp that’s been sautéed garlic, herbs and red wine.

As I post more of these lists, I suspect I’m gonna feel more and more guilty about the obscene amounts of chocolate I consume to power through my days. But that’s okay. It will simply spiral me into a deep depression that will lead to more of that sweet, sweet chocolate.