Coco La Ti Da

OH NO!

11pm on a saturday night.
After the Seattle Symphony a group of friends swing by Coco La Ti Da for a desert.
Brightly lit and crowded
It’s crowded and brightly lit. Very brightly lit, I wish I’d bought my shades. The staff are always polite and accomodating. They always find us a place. We loiter standing by a table about to empty and as they finnish their deserts we take their chairs. The place is crowded, I feel embarressed as I hover by the people who’s chairs we are going to take. The chairs were not chosen for comfort. The tables are placed to maximise the number of customers they can accomodate. Remember to breath in when you sit down.
Ecclectic décor — no single style
The fabulous Ivan Bilibin wall-​paintings clash with the modern light-​fittings and drapes that partially cover the paintings. It is impossible to follow the story Bilibin paintings tell. The décor is neither Russian turn of the century nor modern, it is a mix of both, a clash that doesn’t work for me.
Small well presented and pricey ‘deserts’
I normally have something to drink when my friends bring me here. At $ 10 a ‘taste’ these tiny deserts should be excellent. I gather from my friends they are. I haven’t felt sufficiently inspired to try.
I would not organize a trip here, I will continue to join my friends here….

The dessert:
Many of the desserts so enticingly featured on the website were not available during my visit on a busy Friday night. I ordered the chocolate melting, as did one of the other 3 people at my table, and the 4 of us agreed that, while beautiful, it was quite a bit too rich and too sweet to fully enjoy. It was also very tiny and not very sharable. The presentations were all adorable, but at $ 10 each for small desserts I couldn’t help but think «get over yourself,» just a little. A tiny pot of (very good) coffee or tea is $ 4, which is a little over the top (although good). The thing is, when I have dinner at a famous-​chef-​place, I want a tiny rich dessert to punctuate the meal. But when I go out special for dessert after doing whatever, I want to sit around and have dessert for a while. I want to languish, and I want the thing on my plate to be larger than the utensil I use to eat it.
The atmosphere:
It seemed more upscale than whimsical, with tables full of people I never see in Seattle, dressed in high-​end boutique garb and party frocks. For example, one young woman was fiddling with a small wrapped box she pulled out of her Tiffany shopping bag, and another family actually pulled up in a taxi (who does that in Seattle?). Did they fly these people in for dessert? I digress.
The service:
… as might be expected on a busy Friday night anywhere in Seattle, was not great (our glasses were stinky from the dishwasher, silverware was brought late, we never got napkins. There were some weird smells coming out of the kitchen). But it was busy.
I don’t mean to come down hard on an obviously lovely and unique establishment, and I do look forward to visiting again on some less busy occasion. The desserts are beautiful and taste very nice. However, I was expecting the easy delightfulness of a place like Portland’s Pix Patisserie (it’s dessert, people!), and what I experienced was more like the tail end of a meal at a high end restaurant. In short, not the place I want to languish with my friends on a weekend night. Ironically, it’s almost too special to be any fun.

In the midst of post party cocktails I suggested to a friend that we check out Coco La Ti Da. We fell in to the dessert lounge where Spoon once flipped it’s open sign and were seated. Arriving four minutes before closing I expected a much deserved bum’s rush. To my surprise the staff at Coco La Ti Da treated my friend and I as if we arrived four hours prior to closure and were happily served. Swoon.
The dcor and I hit it off right away. A contemporary elegance sweeps through the lounge as if a modernist and a glamour girl cohabitate and came to some kind of arrangement in the decorating arena. What really sealed the deal for me was Ivan Bilibin’s work gracing the walls. The Russian illustrator/​graphic designer’s fairytale like work gets me every time. I was thrilled to have so many delights all wrapped up in one spot; Coco La Ti Da is as lovable as the desserts.
What A Pear was ordered up by my companion alongside my request for one of the cakes of the day: Princess Cake. Not to be confused with the Princess Torte found at Hoffman’s, the Princess Cake at Coco La Ti Da does have some similarities but, are easily distinguishable. Eating the cake I felt as if I should have been donned with a crown and handed a glittery star wand; Coco La Ti Da is childhood simplicity, imagination, and sweetness on a plate. My friend and I were equally satisfied by our choices.
Obviously I adore this place. To further impress this I will admit that I want to wrap up Coco La Ti Da and put it in my pocket to take with me everywhere and keep always. It is a darling of an establishment. A pastry chef owns and runs the place so expect chef quality, imagination, and prices. The cocktails will make one feel grown up but the sweets may inspire a call to the long lost imaginary friend. That is all I have to say about Coco La Ti Da. I would say more but I have to Netflix Drop Dead Fred and host a tea party.

Yum. Yum. YUM!
Maybe it was the fondant enrobed orange cakes that drew me in. Either that or the wafts of chocolate drifting in Joe Bar as I got my coffee. Regardless, I’m so glad I went in.
We picked up a mini chocolate tart and mini la-​ti-​da for our walk downtown. Needless to say, our desserts didn’t last long. Before we knew it our hands were covered in melted ganache and we were aching for more.
We’ll be back, you can count on that.

This is an amazing, impressive date experience. The desserts (especially the chocolate orange «melting») are decadent and seizure-​inducing-​good. You can get a sampling of lots of small desserts and share. The atmosphere is perhaps the best I’ve found in Seattle. It feels like magic.
Boys: If you took a girl there, she’d be a LOT more likely to sleep with you. I’m just sayin’.

Well La Ti Da!
I was bummed when Fork closed down and I never expected that something equally as exciting would be moving into the Loveless building. Coco La Ti Da by local pastry chef (you know you’ve seen her name in print) Sue McCown has taken over the space and done a remarkable job creating a warm welcoming neighborhood pastry shop.
Her creations are stunning and pretty darn tasty. The portions lean towards Lilliputian in size but are so rich you don’t feel cheated at all. My friends and I tried the parfaits in shot glasses and the mini cakes on a stick. I have a feeling everything I get here will have a twist. I’ll be back to try more for sure!
Yeah, I really needed a fourth dessert place within walking distance of my house. Life is full of temptations.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — –
Update12/​19/​2006:
I’ve gone back here a few times and every time I feel that it’s better in theory than in practice, yes, the desserts are lovely, but at $ 10 bucks a pop I want something filling and delicious. Not just pretty. Sorry Coco La Ti Da you are going from 4 stars to 3.