Comments (0) Best Dessert Menu - 2002

Citizen Cake

Dessert is almost always the best part of the meal, any meal, but at Citizen Cake, the bakery-cum-restaurant in Hayes Valley, the sweet stuff is especially magnificent. Executive Pastry Chef Elizabeth Falkner and pastry chefs Shuna Lydon and Sara Cameron not only make fantastic tarts, pastries, cookies, and cakes for the patisserie side of the operation, they create phenomenal menu desserts as well: a crème brûlée scented with rose petals; an orange-marmalade pudding with Earl Grey ice cream; a tarte Tatin with Point Reyes Blue mousse and cider granita. You can also choose your dessert from the bakery's display case -- the hazelnut bombe with three varieties of layered chocolate, perhaps, or Shuna's Out-of-Control Tart, an intoxicating confluence of thick caramel, fluffy marshmallow, salty-sweet peanut butter, and buttery crust. Everything from the ice creams to the chocolates to the marshmallows to the peanut butter is made in-house, and for the purist there's even a dessert hour Tuesday through Friday from 3 to 5 p.m.