In the back of MarieBelle’s boutique handcrafted chocolates & sweets shop is a European-style cafe open Thursday through Sunday.

I was invited to sample specific foods from their menu including finger sandwiches and either a madeleine ($2.50) or macaron. While waiting, I looked around the elegant, chandelier-topped room, noticing the 3-tiered afternoon tea served at other tables ($45-$65, depending on beverage selection).

Our hearty plateful of finger sandwiches ($21) included salmon on dark bread rounds garnished with fresh lemon; ham and Gruyère on white dipped in chopped parsley; and endive filled with blue cheese, walnuts, apples and a splash of champagne vinegar atop bread with dill cream cheese.

Our waiter brought us and the other guests tastes of their hot chocolate in teeny 1-ounce tasting cups. I learned that MarieBell’s Aztec Hot Chocolate was featured on “Oprah’s Favorite Things.” I sampled the midnight espresso dark hot chocolate (65% Dark chocolate melted with a shot) and the spicy version with chipotle, ancho chili & cinnamon. The latter is what I’d order ($5 small, $7 larger)!

After my snack, I sipped the elegantly served “macchiatto” (single, $4.50, double $5.50) from a china cup on a silver tray while my friend found her favorite new chilled drink: MarieBell’s iced milk chocolate with hazelnut ($7). We were each also given a sample ganache.

Maribel Lieberman, the owner of the eponymous chocolate company, sat with us to share a bit about her background from growing up on the cacao fields of Honduras to producing 1.2 million pieces of chocolate in her Brooklyn factory to service her chocolate locations in New York City and Kyoto, Japan.

MarieBell
SoHo
464 Broome Street
New York, NY 10013