This hot chocolate is, well, hot.
Locals and tourists wait in hour-long lines in frigid temperatures for the elaborate cocoa. Glace by Noglu, an Upper East Side ice cream spot produced by Sasha Zabar. Sasha Zabar is the 32-year-old son of appetizer shop and artisan market impresario Eli Zabar.
Last Saturday, the store sold a record 1,200 hot chocolates. Prices start at $10 and include flavors like s'mores, crème brûlée, peppermint, and cookies and cream.
“From the moment we open to the moment we close, there's a line around the block,” Zabar said.
It was a chilly 25 degrees outside on Tuesday afternoon, but that didn't keep customers away.
Tourists Kyle Hufford, 44, and his son Joseph, 18, are making a third attempt to win the hot drink after the store closed on Monday after lines got too long over the weekend. Ta.
“I had to go back,” said Kyle, who was visiting from San Francisco and waited in line for about 15 minutes before getting a hot cocoa s'more. It was well worth it.
“It's amazing,” he told the Post. “It’s like a marshmallow on a campfire.”
Unsurprisingly, social media has fueled the popularity of this photogenic drink. The drink is reminiscent of both the once-talked-about $15 Black Tap milkshake tower and City Bakery's acclaimed Cocoa, which closed in 2019 after nearly 30 years. On TikTok, his hashtag #glacebynoglu has been viewed over 142,000 times.
“I was scrolling through TikTok [and saw it] – I love the idea of having marshmallows around hot chocolate. It looked kind of cool,'' said Celeste Frazier, 23, who recently moved to New York from Alabama.
“This is the longest I've ever waited. [for food]'' added Frazier, who came to buy cocoa with his mother. “It’s like, ‘Why not?’” For a moment. ”
The hot drink was first added to Glace's menu in November as a seasonal item to keep the ice cream shop afloat through the winter.
“As it got colder, sales started to drop. I thought, 'What can I do to get enough business to get through the winter?' We came up with hot chocolate,” Zabar said. “I always had meringue as a topping. I thought I'd change up the recipe a little and put it on the rim.”
The result is the characteristic “marshmallow fluff”. Apply this to the rim of the cup with a piping bag and bronze with a culinary blowtorch to form a thick, sweet bumper.
The containers are then filled with homemade cocoa made with 56% dark chocolate and topped with homemade whipped cream, crushed candy, cookies, and other decorations depending on the flavor.
You can also customize it with ice cream.
Even the jaded people of Gotham can't resist.
“There were so many tourists outside that I thought they were playing New Yorkers by waiting,” Nikki Lofton, 52, a voice actor and event planner from the Bronx, told the Post. She saw Hot Cocoa on Instagram and lined up to buy one on Tuesday, and after taking a sip of her s'mores flavor, she had no regrets.
“It's worth the hype,” she said.
