The Tezcalate is a corn-shaped play on Mexican hot chocolate that provides the perfect closing note to a meal at this buzzy new restaurant where the rich history of Mexico's food culture takes center stage.
Lavoy grew up in New Jersey and is Italian and French. She moved to Denver in 2016 and was working at the now-closed Mondo Market at Stanley Marketplace when she met Erasmo "Ras" Casiano and Diego Coconati. "When I heard that Ras was opening up [Lucina in 2022], it was just really appealing to me," Lavoy recalls. "I just loved his and Diego's energy."
She also loved the idea of challenging herself by veering away from the Italian cuisine she grew up with and her French baking school training, and moving into something totally new. "Pushing the boundaries, pushing my creativity and learning something new every day is something I aspire to do."
As Coconati and Casiano were getting ready to open Xiquita, "I was honored enough to be asked to do the desserts here, too," she says. "I just love the culture and the food of Mexico. That's what really inspires me so much. I think a lot of people have the misconception that Mexican food is just tacos or desserts like arroz con leche, but it's so much more than that."
Here's her sweet treat, along with three more:
Tezcalate at Xiquita
500 East 19th Avenuexiquita.co
In developing the dessert lineup, "I really wanted to make sure that were we hitting the nose on what you would get in Mexico City if you were walking around in the streets," Lavoy notes. The inspiration for the Tezcalate came from a conversation she and Casiano had about the history of corn. "Ras was talking about how Columbus accidentally came across the Cuban islands and Mexico," she recalls. "He was looking for gold originally, but unbeknownst to him, he was looking at the gold all along, not really knowing it, because Mexicans have a saying that without corn, there is no life. And they mean that truly because of the value that it holds. I wanted to replicate that piece of history and honor the corn by showcasing it."
The main component of the dessert is Mexican hot chocolate ice cream that contains some more savory notes, including ground corn. It's served in the shape of a cob of corn — Lavoy made the original mold at home, DIY style, then sent her design to a company that created the molds she's using now.
The cob-shaped ice cream is served with caramelized white chocolate and is painted gold "as a nod to the value [of corn], but also as a little nudge-nudge to Columbus, like, hey, here's your gold," Lavoy says. "Also, for me, it's a little bit of a mind fuck, because traditionally it's a hot chocolate drink, and I still wanted to uphold that but also be like, it doesn't have to be hot. We can have fun with it."
That playfulness has resonated with guests. "When it comes to the table, everyone else around is like, 'What is that?' Some people think that it's not dessert — they think someone just ordered corn."
Lavoy's corn-inspired dessert seems poised to become a signature at Xiquita, and it's one of several notable sweet treats that you can find on menus around town right now.
Anmitsu at Kumoya
2400 West 32nd Avenuekumoyadenver.com
At Kumoya, the Japanese eatery that opened in the former Tony P's in the Highland neighborhood last October, chef Corey Baker and pastry chef William O’Leary (known to many as Willie Wonka) teamed up on a parfait-like dessert that combines many different ingredients. "Anmitsu is a traditional dessert that uses multiple flavors, textures and preparations to create an entire universe in a bowl," Baker says. "We use both Japanese and Filipino ingredients in our anmitsu, along with taking azuki bean and turning it into a chocolate mousse and finishing with an Okinawa black-sugar syrup."
The colorful ingredients are layered artfully in a glass, and "the flavors are all complementary, balanced and not overly sweet," Baker notes. "Starting from the top, there are juicy strawberries, a lightly sour shikuwasa sorbet with hints of orange, [and] azuki red bean chocolate mousse that is earthy and smooth, diving past the black-sugar syrup through a coconut tapioca with larger pearls of creamy delight, even deeper to the bottom of the dish with perfectly cut small cubes of aloe gelée that will jump around your mouth and chase the flavors."
Wildflower Honey Semifreddo at Wildflower
3638 Navajo Streetlifehousehotels.com/hotels/denver/lower-highlands
Aiden Tibbetts was just 22 years old when he helped open Wildflower inside the Life House Hotel in LoHi in 2020 under then-executive chef William Harris. Within just a few months, he became the executive chef and has since built an impressive culinary program that manages to playfully pay homage to the eatery's name without leaning too precious or gimmicky.
Tibbetts prioritizes using local ingredients, including produce and edible flowers grown in his mother's garden in southeast Aurora. Those flowers garnish what's become the restaurant's signature dessert, the Wildflower Honey Semifreddo, an early invention from Harris that Tibbetts has refined over time.
It's made using honey from local producer Bee Squared Apiaries. Owner Beth Conrey "is amazing," Tibbetts says. "She has beehives all over Colorado. ... It's just beautiful, beautiful honey, so we just made that the highlight of the dessert."
The main component is a "super-custard-heavy" semifreddo that "gives you more of that decadent ice cream vibe," Tibbetts explains. That's paired with toasted oats that are reminiscent (in a good way) of crunchy Nature Valley granola bars and honey brittle. "It's four different versions of honey," he continues. "One that's toasted into the oats and gets that nutty aspect; one that's just the honey drizzled over it; there's a huge amount of the honey in the semifreddo itself; and then the honey brittle, which we press into these beehive-looking molds to get the shape. And then I found the beehive bowls that we're using at World Market — we've kind of elevated it and made it more bee-oriented as time's gone on."
Another addition was the Marsala foam, which lends "a little bit of saline, a little bit of oxidation to round out the palate," Tibbets says, resulting in a honey-centric dish that's still balanced and not cloyingly sweet.
Crémeux et Melon at Noisette
3254 Navajo Streetnoisettedenver.com
Lillian Lu, who owns LoHi French eatery Noisette with her husband, Tim, is a French pastry wizard. During the day, you can taste her creations at the bakery portion of the eatery; at night, no meal should end without her dessert.
Since the restaurant's debut in 2022, Lu's desserts, which are often paired with seasonal fruit, have been a standout. The Tarte Tropezienne, currently paired with Palisade peaches and raspberries, has become a staple, but there's a new seasonal dessert featuring a less commonly used Colorado-grown favorite that's reason to visit sooner than later.
"All my life, fresh melons made my throat and mouth itchy when I ate them," says Lu. But she did develop an affinity for Melona bars, a creamy South Korean ice pop that comes in a variety of flavors, including honeydew (you can find them in the freezer section at H Mart).
Inspired by the state's beloved Rocky Ford melons, Lu created her first-ever melon dessert, which will only be on the menu until the supply runs out — and that could be as soon as next week. To create a texture reminiscent of Melona bars, Lu made a crémeux with white chocolate for its creaminess and crème fraîche for tang. On top of that is a Lillet gelée, because "Lilet and melon is kind of a nice French combination," she says. The Rocky Ford melon slices are shingled on top, and the dish is garnished with toasted pistachios for some crunch.
The resulting dessert is rich and decadent in texture but also tastes very clean and fresh. "The best compliment you can get from an Asian person is that your dessert is not too sweet," Lu notes.
Goal achieved.
