Sweet Diablo - Portuguese Chocolate Cake Franchise on M Street in South Dupont

[mtureck]

Sweet Diablo popped up in Dupont Circle on M St. between 19th and 20th (across from McDonalds) recently. Since their website, www.sweetdiablo.com, is utterly useless, I figured I'd stop by to see what it was.

Interesting place...basically, the owners own the local franchise rights to the "famous" Sweet Diablo chocolate cake, which is loudly advertised in the store as "The Best Chocolate Cake in the World!"

Apparently they don't take themselves too seriously though, as their menu touts their cheesecake as "The Worst Cheesecake in the World!" It's Portugal based, with franchises in a bunch of major European cities.

They also have breakfast and lunch sandwiches, Illy coffee, and various pastries.

I tried the famous chocolate cake, a slice of the traditional version. They also have it in bittersweet, and sell full cakes and 2-3" round "tastes". It's a flour-less cake, but not as dense as they normally are...this one layers ganache with thin crunchy layers that I'm guessing are chocolate meringue. While I can't say it was the best chocolate cake ever (Entenmann's Blackout Cake anyone?) it was pretty tasty, especially when paired with an Illy espresso.

The croissants looked pretty good as well (classic European kind, not the pillowy American ones you're stuck with at Illy Cafe around the corner) so I'll probably try them for breakfast soon.