MadHouse Coffee
Croissant Bread Pudding
White Chocolate Raspberry Macaron
Almond Croissant
Nutellamisu
Americano
With 9 on the Plate not yet serving up sweets and myself running low on caffeine it was to MadHouse Coffee that I walked after dinner and always hoping to find a new, local coffee shop to love and support I’ll simply say that save for the kitschy décor and 24-hour service there isn’t a whole lot to like about MadHouse at all. Locally owned and operated with a menu of drinks both classic and novel plus a collection of “pastries baked fresh on the premises” it with a simple Americano that my experience began and faring well enough at a mere $2.50 it was onward to pastry that I moved, the promise of ‘100% Charent Butter’ ostensibly promising the quality of Echire but not a single item better than average, with one in particular an early contender for worst thing I’ll eat in 2014. Starting first with a $3.24 Almond Croissant it would be hard to imagine something more doughy and less crisp coming from 7-Eleven and moving right along to a $2.50 White Chocolate Raspberry Macaron with decent crackle yielding gummy crumb and sweet ‘frosting’ of a non-descript flavor I sat and wondered exactly what was going on; a brief reprieve found in admirable, albeit microwave-heated bread pudding drizzled in light caramel. At this point sitting with half a macaron and 2/3 of the croissant unfinished it was last, and certainly least that I moved to the ‘nutellamisu” and while certainly not the prettiest presentation nothing could have prepared me for the taste – an acrid, sour, and questionably spoiled cream cheese ‘pudding’ debauchery of the Italian classic that tasted nothing of Nutella or Tiramisu, a second bite of the $3.95 cup yielding similar results and landing it plus the remaining pastries in the trash as I left the store thankful I’d not yet finished my coffee so as to cleanse my palate.