The period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is a time for indulging (let’s leave the grilled chicken salads and juice cleanses for January and beyond) so if you’re on the lookout for a to-heck-with-it-all, I’m-worth-a-splurge kind of dessert, head to Plates in Larchmont.
It’s a quiet, adult sort of restaurant dressed in a beach-chic Hamptons décor and set at the edge of a small park. Chef Matt Karp, who has all sorts of impressive fancy-pants Manhattan experience, serves New American fare with influences from Italy, France, and Asia (diners can see the 20-plus plates hung on the walls he and wife Wendy collected from their extensive culinary travels).
Chef Karp has a playful side especially when it comes to his house-made desserts. There’s a fabulous “Ring Ding” that will have you rethinking the definition of a snack cake, and then there’s the ode to sweet excess in the form of an oversized warm waffle, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and six scoops of smooth ice cream dubbed The Larchmonster. The ice cream flavors vary based on what the kitchen most recently made (I had cookies ‘n’ cream, dark chocolate, vanilla, and Fruity Pebbles), and I didn’t think would finish the creamy monstrosity, especially after the pastrami Rueben and fries I’d eaten for a main course.
But I did, with only four spoonfuls of assistance from my wife.
Plates
121 Myrtle Blvd, Larchmont
914-834-1244; platesonthepark.com