Cioccolata Di Vino: (Little to) No Regrets

Wine, vanilla gelato and Torta al Cioccolato Liquefatto (Lava Cake) at Cioccata Di Vino

            “It’s okay to indulge yourself every once in a while.” That what I had to keep telling myself in order to enjoy North Berkeley’s Cioccolata Di Vino. For a place like this, I couldn’t worry about the money or the calories. I just had to sit back, accept the fact that I was going to be splurging and enjoy. No regrets.

            And it was well worth it. All day I had been longing for something to take me out of the ordinary, something to hit me, something to tell me that I was still alive and kicking. (Needless to say, it had been a long and dull day). At Cioccolata Di Vino, I found it: Torta al Cioccolato Liquefatto, otherwise known as molten lava cake. Ben and I ordered it with a scoop of vanilla gelato, which of course was a delightful and refreshing accompaniment to the richness and chocolatiness of the lava cake. And, because we just couldn’t help ourselves, we also shared a glass of their Nero d'Avola Feudo Principi di Butera Sicilia wine. As if this wasn’t enough, before we knew it we had also ordered chocolate chip cookies. Our damn waitress said the words “fresh out of the oven” and we were hopeless.

Close up of the Lava Cake. Too good!

            Is it even possible to describe to you how good this dessert was? The lava cake was so moist with the outside had the perfect crusty texture. And, of course, inside the lava cake was the molten chocolate, which just screamed for a bite of vanilla gelato to go with it. The chocolate chip cookies were, in all honesty, just chocolate chip cookies. They were good, but they paled in comparison to that lava cake. (Maybe it was a mistake to go for the chocolate chip cookies…but no, I must remember this dessert with no regrets.) The Nero made an elegant accompaniment to the chocolate and rounded the whole thing out nicely. Overall, it was a wonderful place to have a leisurely and scrumptious dessert experience.

            And, yes, I know I said no regrets, but there is something much bigger than chocolate chip cookies at stake here: I missed out on live music. As we were waiting for our food to come, we saw jazz musicians come in one by one and start to set up their instruments. Sadly, we finished our meal before we could get a chance to hear them play. Next time (assuming I can afford to have a next time) I am definitely arriving later, probably around 8 or 9 in order to catch the music. But, I am a perfectionist, and despite the fact that we missed out on the jazz and subsequently on a flawless evening, the delicious and rich chocolate, refreshing gelato, lovely wine, friendly service and carefree atmosphere at Cioccolata Di Vino made my experience incredibly enjoyable.