In keeping with the new tradition of dessert royalty partnering with chocolate companies — à la cronut creator Dominique Ansel’s partnership with Neuhaus, the Belgian chocolatier, as Side Dish first reported — famed pâtissier François Payard has had his own epiphany.
Payard has partnered with Valrhona, the French chocolate maker, to create an extreme version of Galette des Rois, or King’s Cake — which is traditionally eaten Jan. 6 to mark Three Kings Day, a holiday in recognition of the Christian feast of the Epiphany.
Payard’s flaky puff pastry is filled with almond cream and chocolate ganache. A majority of the chocolate comes from Nkwanta, Ghana, and Valrhona’s purchase of the Nkwanta cocoa bean helps fund a well-drilling project in Nkwanta, providing clean water to more than 2,500 people in the district, 800 of whom are cocoa farmers.
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Sofia’s, a hidden gem that thrived in the Theater District at the Edison Hotel on West 46th Street, for 37 years until its September closing, has found a new home.
The popular haunt for Broadway casts and crews, along with theater-goers, specialized in modestly priced Italian food and lively jazz. Downstairs, the cult-show Tina + Tony’s Wedding, ran for a decade.
The space will now likely be used for retail, sources told Side Dish.
Meanwhile, Frank Sofia, the owner of Sofia — along with another Sofia restaurant in Bay Ridge — found a new spot at 42 W. 48th St., a former steakhouse.
Sofia also owned the famed Kenny’s Steakhouse on Lexington Avenue for 30 years.
The new Sofia — to be called Sofia Italian Grill — is more fine dining oriented and it will also have a grill component: USDA prime dry-aged beef.
The new bi-level space seats 120, with another 80-plus seats in the three private dining rooms on the second mezzanine level, which overlooks the first.
The new restaurant has a more up-market menu and look.