New Sucre, Balmain

I don't want to speak ill of the departed, but there once was a shop in Darling Street in Balmain that sold 'old wares', mainly clothing and knick-knacks. I don't like so-called vintage shopping at the best of times (give me nice, new, clean stuff anytime) and the smell emanating from this shop was abhorrent. Some people like it, but I don't. 

So it was a happy day when they announced that they were CLOSING DOWN! There are lots of 'For Lease' signs in Darling Street, so I didn't hold out much hope for anything decent to open in its place anytime soon. My dream is for a Gloria Jean's coffee shop to open (don't hate me).

Then, signs went up saying that 'Sucre, a new dessert heaven' was opening.

Sucre is a chocolate and dessert shop, sort of like Koko Black and Haigh's, and they serve desserts and coffee, etc . Oh, how we've been suffering withdrawals since the Zumbo cafe closed.

The best thing is that they are open past 6pm (Thu to Sat), which gives us locals time to drop in and pick up dessert. That's what I did, and here's what I got.

They have some fancy cakes in a cabinet, like citron tarts, and this looked to be the best of them. Blueberry Temptation ($6) is blueberry mousse and jelly on a chocolate cake base. The texture was good although the flavour is not very strong. Very pretty, though.

This gorgeous slice is cut from a massive cake. Chocolate Chambord cake ($5) is moist chocolate cake with rich Chambord raspberry liqueur running through it. It has chocolate ganache icing and chocolate shavings on top. I love this cake! It's not too sweet (except the icing) and the raspberry flavour is fantastic. This cake was so good that I went back the day after and got another slice.

They have a wall of packaged sweets such as chilli chocolate, chocolate with chunks of strawberry, white almond roca, jars of Brighton rock, humbugs and other goodies. The prices are high-ish (around $10 for a block of chocolate). I got a 200g bag of honeycomb covered with Belgian chocolate ($10). Sweet but moreish.

So that was my first visit to Sucre. On my second visit, I got talking with the one of the owners, Ian, who runs the store with Judy. They are Balmain locals with a passion for chocolate. He let me try some of their hot chocolate (sugar-free!) which was velvety and smooth, just made for dunking in some beignets. I'll be trying them on my next visit.

Sucre is at 325 Darling St, Balmain, NSW
Website: http://www.sucre.com.au