Calling all sugar aficionados, there’s a new dessert item in town meant for the bravest of palettes willing to take on this behemoth of a dessert.
Cue Clinton Hall’s newest Peanut Butter Dream Waffle, or its latest rendition of the gastropub’s “WTF Waffle.” Served on a silver platter, this peanut butter symphony contains three Belgian-style chocolate waffles stacked upon one another between beds of vanilla ice cream peppered with chocolate sprinkles. The waffle tower lays on a sea of Nutella and crushed peanut butter cups, and the waffle triumvirate is adorned with a slice of Clinton Hall’s peanut butter pie. To top it all off, the dessert medley is garnished with two full-sized peanut butter cups.
“It’s like Brad Pitt is walking out of the kitchen,” Telly Hatzigeorgiou, owner of the Clinton Hall FiDi location, joked while referencing each time a server comes out holding one of the desserts. He’s not wrong – the table beside us gasped when the waffle tower left the kitchen and ended up in front of us.
The Peanut Butter Dream Waffle joins two other classic WTF Waffle editions: the Red Velvet and the Birthday. The dessert serves anywhere from four to six people, and maybe even eight, according to Clinton Hall’s executive chef Darryl Harmon, and takes about ten to fifteen minutes just to assemble.
Coming in at $25 for a plate, the waffles have lived on Clinton Hall’s menu for roughly two years.
Part of the inspiration behind the dynamic dessert comes from Hatzigeorgiou’s childhood, where he fondly remembers pooling together enough drachmas to warrant a trip to the Milky Way Bar, a restaurant in Greece, to buy a stack of Belgian waffles topped with caramel and ice cream.
The other half of the inspiration is the creative wit of Harmon, who has worked as a chef in various culinary spaces since he was 25. Despite working in fine dining for a number of years, Harmon describes Clinton Hall’s creative culinary atmosphere “unlike any other place he’s worked in.”
And for those not keen on sweets, fear not, for Clinton Hall is famously known for its brews and burgers rather than its desserts. Twenty beers are served on tap at any given time and patrons can also find burgers such as “The Double Smashed”, two beef patties layered with American cheese, shallots, butter pickles all squeezed between sesame seed buns. That burger took home the slot of ‘Best Burger in NYC’ in 2018’s popular food festival, NYCWFF.
The waffles can be found across any of Clinton Hall’s five locations: Midtown East, Madison Square Garden, FiDi, Williamsburg and The Bronx.
And as for calories? Don’t even bother asking because I certainly don’t wish to know.