Gross Confection Bar, a dessert-only restaurant, opened in Portland’s Old Port on Friday evening.
The restaurant, owned by pastry chef Brant Dadaleares, is located at 57 Exchange St., and will be open from 5 p.m. to midnight seven days a week. The bar will remain open until 1 a.m.
The menu, available at grossconfections.com, includes selections of sweets for one, two, and four or more. It includes classics such as crème brûlée and eclairs, but also the unexpected, such as brown butter–yogurt panna cotta and carrot cake French toast. Expect to see a range of chocolates, fruit pâtés and desserts to go. Cocktails and dessert wines will be offered, as well.
Dadaleares, a veteran of some of Portland’s best restaurants, has been working on Gross Confection Bar for more than three years, raising money and testing ideas through pop-up restaurants, special events, and a Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $35,000.
The restaurant’s unusual name is a form of sarcastic kitchen lingo that Dadaleares became known for using when he described his own work.
A smattering of all-dessert restaurants have opened around the country in the past two decades, though usually in larger cities.
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