CAFE LAPIN
2341 Peachtree Road, Atlanta. 404-812-9171. $$
Usually, I’m not a fan of restaurants with elaborate displays of stuffed bunnies in the window, but I’ll make an exception for Cafe Lapin. This restaurant in the Peachtree Battle Shopping Center attracts a healthy crowd of women in large groups and well-dressed older couples for platters of pulled chicken salad served with a slice of banana bread and a “mandarin orange soufflé” — one of the last true congealed salads in town.
After a meal like this you might just look at the dessert display set up in front of the kitchen and snort in derision. You’d be making a mistake. Both the chocolate and caramel cakes have a soft, soft crumb and little flecks of vanilla bean seed in the batter. The light, creamy caramel frosting definitely dates to the era before caramel met salt. The chocolate has a richer flavor than your typical cocoa frosting, with a bittersweet edge that works well alongside the tender cake.
A sugar cookie came with a tart, true lemon-juice glaze, while an oatmeal cookie looked sleek and shiny and broke open to reveal hollow crags studded with chocolate chips, nuts and dried cranberries.
