Also this issue:

Forever in Blue Jeans
Denim gets a makeover at Center City's newest pricey nightspot.
-A.D. Amorosi

Hot Chocolates
The 10 best chocolate things in Philadelphia.
-Francine Maroukian

Icepack
-A.D. Amorosi

February 6-12, 2003

naked city

Six American Chocolate Classics

1. Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses. These flat-bottomed, curly-topped drops were the brainchild of the over-achieving Milton Snavely Hershey, who created a chocolate nerve center in the fields of central Pennsylvania and still had time to leave us with this confection conundrum: If the gift of one Hershey's Kiss is an impossibly romantic gesture, why is a whole bag just candy? Available nationally.

2. Chocolate sour cherry bread from La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles. Part bread, part dessert, totally sigh-eliciting. This dense, almost black loaf, studded with chunks of sour cherries, is the very heart of darkness. No mail order and worth every mile. La Brea Bakery, 624 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, Calif., 323-939-6813.

3. Hot chocolate from The City Bakery’s Annual Hot Chocolate Festival in New York City. Every day during the month of February, owner Maury Rubin delivers the sweet heat: one-of-a-kind, slightly bizarre but absolutely delicious flavored hot chocolate (like Ginger, Banana Peel and Chili Pepper) made in the European style by melting Valrhona chocolate into infused milk and heavy cream. The City Bakery, 3 W. 18th St., New York, N.Y., 212-366-1414, www.hot-chocolate-festival.com.

4. Frango Dark Chocolate Mints from Marshall Field’s in Chicago. Marshall Field opened his first store in 1868 with the slogan, "Give the lady what she wants." Why should you aspire to anything less? Slip your overnight guests one of these layered dark-chocolate-and-mint sandwiches -- the perfect pillow pleasure. And so popular that Marshall Field's ships over 1 million pounds a year. 800-292-2450, www.marshallfields.com.

5. Double Chocolate Sauce from Ethel M’s in Las Vegas. This thick candy-bar-in-a-bottle is as rich as you wanna be. Buy it mail order for $20 or at the factory founded by Forrest, son of Ethel M, and meet the whole Mars family -- M&M's, Milky Way, Snickers and the Mars Bar. If the lure of free admission and samples can't draw you six miles off the Vegas strip, how about one of the most extensive desert gardens in the country? We're talking approximately 3 acres covered with 350 different cacti species. 800-438-4356, www.ethelm.com.

6. Chocolate ice cream from Jon Snyder, founder of the lauded Ciao Bella gelato company, and now ice cream guru and proprietor of Manhattan's new II Laboratorio del Gelato, a custom source for New York's pickiest chefs. In milk, dark, chocolate Kahlua, chocolate caramel, chocolate hazelnut and white chocolate. Il Laboratorio del Gelato, 95 Orchard St., New York, N.Y., 212-343-9922, www.laboratoriodelgelato.com.