Food & Drink

New Late-Night Dessert Bar Will Bring Stunning Sweets to Capitol Hill

Tarts so good you'll want to eat them sober, too.

By Chelsea Lin August 30, 2017

key-lime-tart-pic

Summer is winding down—goodbye salad season and helllooooooo sugar. To celebrate, R & M Dessert Bar will be opening its doors by early October in Capitol Hill.

Owners Rod Gambassi and Marc Adams (hence the R & M name) aren’t classically trained pastry chefs—unless you count grandma’s kitchen as education. But they’re no newcomers either: Adams says they started making wedding and party cakes about a decade ago, and after a couple of years decided they should expand into other sweets. They went through their grandmothers’ recipe books to touch on those nostalgic flavors everyone loves in dessert, but played with them to perfect and update the recipes. (“Grandma didn’t throw a lot of bacon on her sweets, but we sure do!” Adams says.) Since then, they’ve worked on wholesale accounts and largely stayed under the local radar. 

But no more. Now, Gambassi and Adams are busy preparing an array of visually impressive desserts that also manage to be delicious—a rare accomplishment in the world of sweets. Look particularly for the gorgeous tarts in flavors like key lime, passionfruit, and mango-guava, with a salty shortbread crust that balances the sweetness well. These are the desserts you’ll want to plan to pick up whole and take to holiday dinner parties this year.

R & M will predominantly be a destination for desserts, though they’ve planned light savory items as well. There will be about a dozen seats and a walkup window you can buy sweets from outside (look for a different menu there, like housemade ice cream sundaes with banana bread). The spot—in Capitol Hill’s new Cove apartments on East Pike Street and Belmont Avenue—almost necessitates late nights, and they’re planning to stay open until 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays at least.

There’s not an exact opening date set, though keep an eye on their Facebook page for updates. In the meantime, they’ll be holding a pop-up shop at the U Village Williams Sonoma on Sept. 9 at 3 p.m.

“It feels like Christmas, because we’ve been working on this for so long,” Adams says. “Even if all we’re getting for Christmas is more work, it’s what we asked for.” 

Follow Us

Kitchen Conversations With J. Kenji López-Alt

Kitchen Conversations With J. Kenji López-Alt

The Seattle chef discusses online feedback, appropriation, and his goals as a noted food writer

Currently, he's juggling projects for his YouTube channel, working on a new cookbook aimed at everyday cooking, writing another children's book, and launching a podcast with Deb Perlman of Smitten Kitchen.

A Delicious Start to Women Making History Month 

A Delicious Start to Women Making History Month 

Start by supporting these women-owned restaurants, wineries, and breweries

Join us in raising a glass to some of the women chefs, winemakers, brewers, and business owners who make Seattle and Washington’s culinary and imbibe scene so dynamic.   

A Slice Above the Rest

A Slice Above the Rest

With grace and grit, Niles Peacock has worked his way to the top of the pizza world

“This has to be a joke.” That’s the first thing that passed through Niles Peacock’s head as he stood reading the results of the 2022 International Pizza Challenge in Las Vegas... Photo by Steve Parent Photography

Edible Art

Edible Art

Check out these elegant practitioners of pastry just in time for Valentine's Day

Whether you like Valentine’s Day because you enjoy celebrating all the ways love exists in your life, or you want an excuse to eat delicious dessert with your girlfriends for Galentine’s, plenty of Seattle pastry shops and chocolatiers will keep you well fed.