Almost three years ago baker Maresa Volante and chocolatier Lagusta Yearwood, self-described best friends, joined forces to open Confectionery!, a small but remarkably well-stocked sweets shop in the East Village.
Among the signature items are Yearwood's Furious Vulvas (made from fair-trade, organic dark chocolate and pink salt), and Volante's magical Macarons, which come in flavors like Chamomile, Blueberry Cardamon, and Absinthe Black Currant.
Everything in the store is, as their official tote bag puts it, "anti-fascist and militantly vegan." Located steps from Tompkins Square Park, it fits right in with the neighborhood.
Confectionery! is an unabashedly political place, loudly LGBTQ-friendly, fiercely anti-NRA, deeply committed to supporting sustainable farming and production. And although they spend most their time in their homebase of New Paltz, Yearwood and Volante, with the help of on-site workers such as Veronica Timan, are also dedicated to building a community in the East Village. One manifestation of this is the Mitzvah wall, for which customers can pre-pay for any item, then specify a recipient on a Post-it (for example: "1 macaron for someone who's queer and getting sober—you're not alone"). Equally important to all that, however, is that everything at Confectionery! is exceptional.
And so we come to Valentine's Day, that most manufactured of holidays on which lovers will spend some $20.7 billion this year. How does this jibe with the essence of Confectionery!? Here's what Yearwood told Gothamist:
"I once read this quote by Toni Morrison where she said she couldn't find the kind of books she wanted to read, so she wrote them, and I think about that a lot. In a not-at-all-as-good-as-Toni-Morrison way, I try to run the sort of business I'd want to shop at, you know? Which means making fun things that I'd want to eat for Valentine's that aren't heavily laced with treacly sweetness and a cheesy notion of romantic love. We try to make things that explode and queer all ideas of what love can look like. For us it's an opportunity to make special sweets that we only make once a year, that we happen to cut into heart shapes."
Among those specials this week are the Dark and Bitter Heart macaron and the Intense Anatomical Heart, made with extra bitter chocolate, coffee beans, and volcanic black salt. You can also get your sweetie (or yourself) a box of chewy Violet Caramels, or double-decker, chocolate-covered Raspberry Pistachio Hearts, or bite-sized Maple White Chocolate Hearts.
And for the most insatiable among you, there's a massive meltaway Tahini Heart, featuring two layers of salty sweet ganache, and a huge Love Is Dead Chocolate Skull, with five different bonbons for brains.
(Scott Lynch / Gothamist)
Confectionery! is located at 440 East 9th Street, just west of Avenue A, and is open Monday through Saturday from noon to 9 p.m., and on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. (646-869-0133; confectionerynyc)
