Thriving 'Damn Good' restaurant group teams with award-winning chef to open a new sweet spot

If you've got a sweet tooth, enjoy surprises and love creativity, Damn Good Sweets in Delray Beach might just be your idea of heaven.

Created by Damn Good Hospitality, the group that brought South Florida venues and restaurants including Revolution Live, Stache Drinking Den and Warren Delray, this confectionery dream opened Aug. 18 on West Atlantic Avenue.

Featuring ice cream, milkshakes, floats, cookies, brownies and blondies, this might sound like your typical sweets shop.

That's where you'd be wrong, so wrong. In addition to the classics, they have petit gateaux (aka 'little cake'), entremets (assembled layer cakes with each layer featuring a different texture) and so much more.

Helmed by award-winning pastry chef Julian Belon, this shop might just put Willy Wonka's level of creativity to shame.

Strawberry Petit Gateaux at Damn Good Sweets in Delray Beach, Florida on September 7, 2023.
Strawberry Petit Gateaux at Damn Good Sweets in Delray Beach, Florida on September 7, 2023.

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Forget Gobstoppers or Nerds, how about the Strawberry Cone? This dessert mimics an upside-down strawberry ice cream cone, but in reality is a scoop of strawberry mousse sitting underneath an ice cream cone covered in sprinkles and pink-colored white chocolate. That white chocolate drips from the cone onto the mousse offering a visual syrup effect. Finally, to kick that cone up up just one more notch, there's strawberry compote and vanilla sponge inside the scoop of mousse.

Want another Wonka-trouncing treat? Check out The Pear at Damn Good Sweets.

A banana ice cream cone at Damn Good Sweets in Delray Beach, Florida on September 7, 2023.
A banana ice cream cone at Damn Good Sweets in Delray Beach, Florida on September 7, 2023.

Much like the Strawberry Cone, this treat is a multi-sensory delight. At first it appears to be a perfectly ripe piece of fruit, but in actuality, it is a pear-shaped green-white chocolate shell filled with pear mousse, pear compote and olive oil cake.

The ice cream is made in-house and features the classics like vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, plus offerings including dulce swirl, banana pudding with 'nilla wafers, mocha chip, chocolate brownie chunk, cookie monster and hazelnut crunch.

How to pick your treat at Damn Good Sweets

A bubble cone at Damn Good Sweets in Delray Beach, Florida on September 7, 2023.
A bubble cone at Damn Good Sweets in Delray Beach, Florida on September 7, 2023.

Available in cups, waffle cones and bubble waffle cones, the ice cream can also be enjoyed via the classic ice cream sandwich.

At Damn Good Sweets customers can pick an ice cream and one of their cookies, including chocolate chip, white chocolate chip macadamia and peanut butter. This allows them to create their own perfect, hand-held ice cream delivery vehicle.

They also feature sorbet in strawberry, mango, raspberry and coconut.

In addition to chef Belon's amazing creations, house-made ice creams, sorbet, cookies, blondies and brownies the sweets shop has a section devoted to straight-up old school candy.

Sold by the pound, Damn Good Sweets pops you in the time machine for favorites like Smarties, Jaw Breakers, Sugar Babies, Pop Rocks, Mike and Ike and many more.

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Nestled just steps away from Warren Delray, this 1500-square-foot bakeshop has some indoor seating and the decor is as whimsical as the desserts and mixes touches of soft pink, accented by the colorful desserts.

In the near future (maybe when temperatures fall to tolerable), they are planning to add an outdoor patio for guests to enjoy those delectable treats.

Damn Good Sweets in Delray Beach

Damn Good Sweets in Delray Beach.
Damn Good Sweets in Delray Beach.

Where: 8854 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach

Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, Saturday

Information: damngoodsweets.com

Eddie Ritz is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at eritz@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Damn Good Sweets Delray Beach offers classics, incredible treats