Neighborhood: Logan Square

Vegetarian Options Rating: ★★★★★

Pescatarian Options Rating: ★★★★★

Affordability: ★★★★

Ambience: ★★★★

Service: ★★★★★

 Food and Beverage Quality: ★★★★★

Overall Rating: ★★★★★

I haven’t really been a fan of hot chocolate until the past few months when I discovered gourmet hot chocolate places like Mindy’s Hot Chocolate and Katherine Anne Confections.  While I do love Mindy’s, they are so well known and you can’t really sit there and drink hot chocolate unless you eat at the restaurant and I’d rather focus on a place that is not as hyped up.

Katherine Anne Confections is a cute, small cafe in Logan Square that has a fabulous assortment of chocolate truffles, candies, hot chocolates, and surprisingly sandwiches.  After being gifted a box of chocolate truffles from here, I can’t go back to eating truffles that can be found at Walgreens even though that makes me sound super bourgie.  These truffles are fresh and heavenly.  They have unique combinations like goat cheese walnut, which literally melt in your mouth.

I came here for the hot chocolate though so I wasn’t going to ruin my hot chocolate appetite with anything else.  They have an excellent variety of hot chocolates and have an extensive vegan menu.  They are really great about customizing options so even if you are okay having milk chocolate but don’t want regular milk, they can make it with Almond milk.

Their vegan options were not an after thought and I was impressed at how they took great care with presenting truly great options for vegans and people who are lactose intolerant.  Many hot chocolate places don’t let you customize so this was refreshing.  The service was exemplary.  Upon walking in we were greeted by a few friendly faces and it didn’t feel fake.  They were very receptive to any questions we had and checked on us after we had the hot chocolate to make sure we were happy.

We ordered from the vegan menu and got the Mexican Hot Chocolate and the Mocha Hazelnut Hot Chocolate.  They also let you select which marshmallows you’d like in your beverage so I picked the cinnamon for the Mexican Hot Chocolate and vanilla for the Mocha Hazelnut Hot chocolate.

The Mexican Hot Chocolate had a refreshing spice to it.  It was thick and decadent, but not as guilt-provoking since it was vegan and made with Almond milk.  The chocolate was sweet but it complemented the spice really well.  They also sprinkled some peppercorn on there to add even more of a zest on top of the cinnamon marshmallow.

The Mocha Hazelnut Hot Chocolate was a nice companion to the Mexican Hot Chocolate because it was milder so if the spice was too much, you could take a break with the Mocha Hazelnut.  This hot chocolate was also vegan and not super sweet but still thick and decadent.  The hazelnut flavor was prominent but everything was very well balanced.  The vanilla marshmallow melted perfectly in the hot chocolate and was served with two candied walnuts, which added a tasty crunch to the soft marshmallow.

The portions are pretty large and you might either want to split it with someone ($7 for the smallest size, which is what we had) or do the tasting menu ($9, which includes 3 hot chocolates of your choice).  One of these can feel like a meal!

Maybe hot chocolate isn’t your thing?  They do have three sandwiches here and one of them is a vegetarian option.  The Bahn Mi looked intriguing and if I do need something savory to balance the sweetness, I just might try it.  Their cafe curates a warm, neighborhood feel where you can sit and talk to a dear friend or sit alone, observe and/or read as you sip on delicious hot chocolate.  I will definitely be back here to try more of their hot chocolate.  It has a true neighborhood feel to it.