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| - For four and a half glorious years, I worked at the now-defunct Indigo Cafe, housed within the corporate book merchant of same name. Here, I developed a taste for the many delicious, expensive food items we served, but the most lingering was the array of Dufflet's desserts that we had shipped in from the city.
Many other eateries around the GTA also borrow sweet and attractive treats from this Mecca of pastries, but nothing beats heading to the place where it all started on Queen West. In a quiet, small-ish cafe, which belies the brand's legendary reputation, you can choose from a far better variety of their vast repertoire, fresher and more plentiful than the many secondary dealers.
It would be impossible to even begin to convey the hundreds (yes, I said hundreds, meaning at least 100) of items I have sampled over the years, or how superior most are to other places' similar offerings. The many varieties of cheesecake, boasting a wealth of evolving seasonal flavours, have the same impossibly rich and creamy base (starting with a gasp! Shortbread crust??!) that changed my standards for the dish forever, and their carrot cake made me re-evaluate my previous stance on carrot cake (nay).
In spite of their recent and considerable growth, this Toronto institution's original headquarters still feels small, comfortable and homey (to me, anyway), enough to feel like (I imagine it did) the first time. The sun streaming through their gigantic window, soaking my perfect lemon square makes me believe it's true.
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