Joe Gambino’s Bakery
Red Velvet Cake Balls / King Cake Balls / Praline Cake Balls
Red Velvet Square
Carrot Cake Square
Russian Rum Square
Rum Ball
Butter Pecan Cookie
Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
Turkish Style Date and Pecan Macaroon
Praline
Lemon Doberge Square
Caramel Doberge Square
Chocolate Doberge Slice
Located Northwest of New Orleans in Metairie, the locals-only shop brought to attention by a server at Emeril’s who explained that the bakery laid claim to inventing Doberge Cake, it was midday that two entered Joe Gambino’s Bakery on Veterans Memorial Boulevard, neither the inside nor exterior seeming as though much has changed since opening in 1949.
Said by some to make the region’s best King Cake, seasonal variants including an Orange and Black ring breaking tradition and offered all year long, Joe Gambino’s has additionally made a name for itself as a great place for Weddings, Birthdays or even NFL Saturday creations, everything from Geaux Tigers to a Po-Boy Shaped Cake presented on shelves with a counter off to the left specifically set aside to discuss such designs with clients.
Open at 8 o’clock in the morning, a sizable selection of sweets nonetheless still available around 3:00pm on a Tuesday, it was with friendly service plus low prices that a collection of some seventeen small bites and slices, including a few duplicates, was chosen – Coffee back at the hotel undoubtedly requisite for such a tasting, but in actuality not yet even brewed when teeth cracked the Chocolate Shell of a sugary-sweet Praline Cake Ball.
Happy to see most options available in personal or Petit Four portions, the King Cake Cake Ball not really anything like the frosted yeasted ring, but more like colored Wedding Cake compressed into an almost pudding-like orb, better bites were found in both bites of Red Velvet with the square given preference, Carrot Cake unfortunately for lack in terms of spices while the Russian Rum Cube was far too artificial and harsh, the Tootsie Roll textured Rum Ball faring much better.
Not particularly impressed by the dense and flavorless Oatmeal Raisin Cookie, far better flavor found in both the meltingly soft Butter Pecan puddle as well as the dense and chewy Turkish Macaroon, Joe Gambino’s Praline offers great texture when compared to many of the gritty commercial counterparts while the famous “Doberge” that unapologetically riffs on Hungarian Dobos Torte is nothing but a pale imitation, the Sponge Cake really no better than boxed with super sweet Buttercream Frosting.
