Hot days call for cool coffee drinks. And the affogato might be coolest of them all. In Italian, affogato means “drowned,” a fitting moniker for the dessert-drink hybrid that we fell in love with while traveling through Italy. Ever hankering for the sophisticated float, we tinkered with the classic recipe and came up with our own concoction: house-made salted caramel semifreddo – frozen mousse – swimming in a fresh shot of Intelligentsia espresso.
The steaming crema melts the outer edges of the semifreddo, making for a delicious soup, and the salty sweetness of the salted caramel complements the bite of the espresso. We are trying to limit ourselves to one affogato a day (a double shot and scoop doesn’t count as two, right?). Future iterations may find the semifreddo floating in liqueur… delightful danger (read about boozy variations on the theme here).
Affogato is one of many fresh items on the menu, all imagined with the bounty of spring and summer in mind. For a perfect picnic on the Persephone porch, try our new BKR sandwich – bacon, kale and ricotta on our grilled levain bread joined by a jar of tomato jam – followed by an affogato. Palate perfection.
In other beverage news, we are shaking up summer with cocktails. This week, try our classic mimosas (fresh-squeezed orange juice with Prosecco) or beermosa (Odell Easy Street wheat beer with fresh grapefruit juice and a splash of honey water). Cheers!