Best Dessert Menu

There are a few special moments that make life worth living: your wedding day; the birth of your first child; the waiter saying, "Would you like to look at the dessert menu?" Many's the time the carte in question has not crowned (or rescued) the preceding meal with sufficient succulence, but Salina Rubio's contribution -- the finest reading this side of M.F.K. Fisher -- is one damnably delicious thing after another. There's the triple chocolate terrine, a dense, decadent devil's food cake layered with white and dark chocolate ice creams and set on a bed of chocolate-coconut meringue. There's the lavender crème brûlée, rescued from yuppie oblivion by amazingly rich, buttery shortbread fingers in three flavors. There's the Key lime pie, in which the snap of the citrus nestles into a comfy, creamy mousse and a sweet-crunchy macadamia-brittle crust. And there's the brioche bread pudding, homey and comforting, accented with a triple-berry compote and a dollop of white chocolate ice cream. Yeah, I want to look at the dessert menu.