We looked at the sad, three item dessert menu and said, “Let’s get dessert somewhere else.”

This is a nice idea in theory. Keep the date going with a location change! A walk to a second location can allow for hand holding! Smooch while waiting for green lights! But when you’re in the real estate wasteland of Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood, it’s a much better idea in theory than in practice.

Surely we’d walk by an ice cream place.
Or a bakery?
Anything better than a Dunkin Donuts?

THAT’S WHEN I REMEMBERED AN ADORABLE BAKERY I’D BEEN TO A COUPLE TIMES WHILE DATING A MURRAY HILL BRO. I WAS PRETTY SURE IT WAS ON 3RD AVENUE…SOMEWHERE IN THE 20S…THAT WAS ALL I REMEMBERED.

“I know it’s on the corner…I think it has a blue awning…promise I’ll know it when I see it. Hum, not this block. Let’s go up one more?” That was my song and dance from 20th all the way to 27th Street. My date trailed along, amused, I guess. He never complained. Never came up with a better suggestion than my wild goose bakery chase.

When we finally found La Delice Pastry Shop on the corner of 27th and 3rd I was relieved I wasn’t completely crazy absolutely victorious!

This pastry shop is a blast from the past. It opened in 1935 and feels like it hasn’t changed much since. Aside from 200% inflation and superior food coloring methods. And cartoon characters that didn’t exist until long after the Great Depression.

Seriously, this shop opened smack in the middle of the Great Depression! It had to be pretty amazing to make anyone spend money on sweets back then!

Aside from hilariously frosted cupcakes, La Delice Pastry Shop sells over 40 different kinds of cookies by the pound. You can point to each cookie and say “I want one of those, and two of those, and 12 of those,” any way you’d like! They wrap them up in a box for you and weight them.

It’s perfect for an indecisive person and a gal who likes to try everything.

I would have taken pictures of the 40 trays of butter cookies, but I got yelled at “No photos!” after snapping Elmo and Cookie Monster. What a shame. Well, here’s a picture of the window display.

My favorite thing? They sell macarons by the pound! Any one who’s read my extensive coverage of Macaron Day knows I’m obsessed with french macarons. To get them by the pound instead of $3 a piece is a steal!

Dear Gluten Free New Yorkers: go to La Delice Pastry Shop and get cheap, gluten-free macarons!

The box holding my macarons was tied up in red striped ribbon. Can’t get more delightfully retro than that (unless you charged 10 cents a cookie)! I wish all take-out containers felt like you were unwrapping a present when you opened them.

It’s literally a brown paper package tied up with string like from the song “My Favorite Things”.

Another of my favorite things? Stupid puns. This pastry shop was made for me.

It’s a mousse mouse! A mouse shaped, chocolate mousse cake! His cute little brown head is filled with rich chocolate mousse. You get to violently bite it off! It’s so good!

If you’re ever on the east side of Manhattan, in the residential neighborhood of Murray Hill, go to this bakery. Get a different biscotti flavor for every day of the week to eat with your morning coffee. You’ll pay for them by the pound, it’ll be markedly cheaper than Starbucks and a whole lot more fun. Also, will some one try a Cookie Monster cupcake for me? Bonus points if you eat it like Cookie Monster himself.

Thanks for reading! Until we meet again next post, OR on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat @newyorkcliche!