The Chocolate Brunette Pastry Company recently opened on Avenue Road north of Davenport selling Italian-inspired and chocolate-centric desserts. Owner and baker Micol Corno started The Chocolate Brunette as an online catering business about four years ago, combining her lifetime passion for chocolate with her Italian heritage and culinary training. While studying Italian cuisine, Corno worked in the pastry division of a Roman hotel, where she fell in love with making fine desserts.

"I've always wanted to open a storefront location because I love interacting with people," Corno explains to me when I popped in on a recent Saturday afternoon.

Corno says she wants to offer people a chic but non-intimidating spot to enjoy a high-quality treat and fine Italian coffee, at a reasonable price. The bakery's clean white decor, with stainless steel and Tiffany blue accents, certainly creates a modern European atmosphere that is the perfect backdrop for showcasing the rich and beautifully decorated pastries on display. Limited seating is available at the window to sip your Italian espresso, cappuccino, or latte, and savour your dessert.

As expected, chocolate takes centre stage at this bakery.

"I eat way too much chocolate," Corno confesses as she walks me through the day's offerings. She tells me her top sellers are the Heavenly Bites chocolate and Nutella cookies, the chocolate molten lava cupcakes, and the Nutella cupcakes.

The menu also includes chocolate truffles and other chocolate desserts. Not a chocolate lover? Fear not. Corno has other options like shortbread cookies, meringues, fruit tarts, and vanilla-based cupcakes.

As someone known to eat Nutella by the spoonful, I didn't put up much of a fight once I spotted the Heavenly Bites cookie, Corno's personal favourite ($1.30 each, or $16/dozen). The cookie is a few bites of pure chocolate heaven. Dark, rich chocolate dough surrounds a filling of Nutella, gooey chocolate chips, and crunchy Hazelnut bits. One or two bites would've been enough to satisfy my sweet tooth, but who eats only half of a delicious cookie? Certainly not this girl.

During my visit, I wasn't the only one falling in love with this indulgent treat--another customer immediately bought a dozen to take home with her after sampling one bite.

As for her cupcakes ($3 each and up), Corno shies away from buttercream icing, focusing instead on chocolate ganache, marscapone, and mousse toppings. While she acknowledges that "buttercream is huge right now" in the cupcake world, she finds it too heavy for her taste, and wants to distinguish herself from the myriad of cupcake purveyors in the city.

While I personally tend to prefer a thick buttercream topping to my cupcake, the glossy dark chocolate ganache on the Nutella cupcake hit the spot. The cake itself was moist and light, with a hint of Nutella filling, and a simple toasted hazelnut garnish. Personally, I think a bit more hazelnut flavour would've been nice to balance the rich dark chocolate of the ganache, but it was a delicious cupcake nonetheless.

I was impressed to learn that, for the time being, The Chocolate Brunette is a one-woman operation, with Corno baking everything on-site and serving customers herself. She tells me she doesn't mind: "I love what I do, and I want to get to know my clientele and deliver the best possible customer service."

She's still deciding on the store's opening hours, so it's best to call ahead for now. Customers can grab some treats in store, or can order anything off the menu to be freshly baked 2-3 days in advance. The Chocolate Brunette also caters private and corporate events. Cookies and truffles are $15-$16/dozen, cupcakes are $36/dozen and up, and pastries are $8-$24/half-dozen.

Photos by Irina No