Chicago: Hot Chocolate

I'd been raving about Hot Chocolate to my sister since last year, so I made it a point to take her (and my father) there when she came to visit during Thanksgiving break:

I'm just going to admit right off the bat that I should've done my homework better. I dragged my sister and my dad out of bed thinking that we would start the day with breakfast at Hot Chocolate...only to arrive there and discover that it doesn't open until 11:30am.

Turns out brunch is only available during the weekends. Lunch is only served Wednesday through Friday. Thank goodness we went on a Wednesday. If my sister had arrived just one day earlier...we would've made a trip all the way to Wicker Park for nothing.

As it was, we arrived at around 11:00am, so it really wasn't too big of a deal to walk a bit around the block. We entered Hot Chocolate promptly at 11:30 and weren't all that surprised to be the first ones there:

Love the chocolate-y interior. Double love how you can see straight into the kitchen.

We didn't really feel like eating lunch just yet, so we decided to order a cup of hot chocolate each and share a plate of donuts.

My sister and I both got the medium hot chocolate (which has a touch of caramel), while my dad got the half and half (espresso plus dark hot chocolate):

The hot chocolate is a little, um...okay, let's be honest, very pricey. $6 a cup, my friends. But it's soooo good. One cup is all you need. (I always feel like I should have a glass of milk on the side.) And look, house made marshmallows!

Warm brioche donuts with caramel corn:

The donuts are dusted in sugar and dipped in chocolate fudge. Total sweetness overload.

After all that sugar, we were looking forward to some tacos at Big Star, but sadly it started hailing almost a minute after we left Hot Chocolate, so we opted to head straight to the Field Museum instead.

Did you know that T-Rex only has 2 fingers?

Oh, and another thing to note: Hot Chocolate is closed on Mondays. Whew. Now you know.

Hot Chocolate
1747 N Damen Ave
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 489-1747
http://www.hotchocolatechicago.com/