Lenôtre: Chocolat Griotte

Tuesday afternoon (still a holiday) and went for another run trying to do neighborhood paths, this time back to the new/revised Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama loop counterclockwise, which I was successful at, and also tried the Takeshita clump and was doing fine and could have finished it (I had done all the hard parts), but decided that it was time to revise the north loop and stop running through the shrine grounds. Everyone cuts through there and it's really wide and nobody has ever yelled at me for running where I do (can't say that about everywhere, though nowhere on a course). So I'll need to do that again.

Out of order, earlier in the day, since Viron doesn't have any new cakes for me and I've had less items that from other shops in the superb group, I stopped by and got a Pain aux Raisins. It was quite eggy, which was my complaint about Excelsior Caffé's, so really I owe them an apology (and perhaps another morning visit). It was still good, but not my favorite.

On the run, I decided that I have to add Max Brenner as a site, even if I don't respect chocolate pizza, it's valid, and Strawberry Mania has take-out strawberry macarons (though you might have to buy a set of three, which would disqualify them on price grounds). Also, back at home, I noted that Strawberry Fetish is near there in Totti Candy Factory (or vice verses) and one of them has cake on stick, which is overpriced and I wish they didn't, but I might have to visit them some day.

After the run, and dinner, I had Lenôtre's Chocolat Griotte. My original plan for the afternoon (and it would have been early afternoon), was to go to Ryoura, as next in line for a visit of holiday only places, but I saw that Lenôtre had multiple new things that were sold out at the end of the day when I had visited before, so I figured I need to take this chance instead. Actually, they have 4 new things, but two have coffee and one is a glass dessert, so the Chocolat Griotte was the obvious choice. The inside is completely soft, which is probably why it's uneven. It was good, but not exciting. The inside is like a fondant, despite being chilled, plush there's more cherry. I'm not big on cherries, so maybe something else would like this flavor more.

As it stands, Lenôtre, which was promoted early due to a hole in the quite exception shop list when Origines Cacao dropped out and Viron got promoted, is dropped to the lowest position and is now under threat by Pierre Gagnaire. Since Lenôtre doesn't have another cake I'm in a hurry to try anyway, I can wait until at least next week to get to Pierre Gagnaire. I'll try a new cake from Jinguumae next and then finish bringing En Vedette even with other exceptional shops. (And Friday I'll rest, at least from cake.)