Choco-Latte Cafe

Hot chocolate made from the house chocolate

The hot chocolate is built on the café’s own chocolate sauce rather than a commercial syrup, and it is dairy-free, which makes it the most direct expression of a counter that treats chocolate and coffee as equal work. The chocolates are made here too: truffles, and bark finished with fruit and nuts. The coffee is organic and comes from Acadia Coffee Company, a Maine roaster, so both halves of the name are sourced rather than simply bought in. Choco-Latté works as a chocolate shop crossed with an espresso bar, not as a restaurant with a dessert list. The chocolate case and the drinks board carry roughly equal weight, which is unusual for a coffee counter this size.

Bagels, sandwiches and a pavement table

Bagels are made on the premises and they carry the food side, first on their own and then as the base of the breakfast sandwiches. That keeps mornings simple: a bagel or a breakfast sandwich beside an espresso, a cappuccino, a latte or the hot chocolate. Almond, oat and soy milk are all available for the coffee and tea drinks.

Later in the day the savoury end widens into paninis and tacos, which gives the room a light lunch role on top of breakfast and dessert. Pastries and the chocolate case fill in around them, so an order can stay as small as a drink and a truffle. Outside there are pavement tables and dogs are welcome at them. Inside, local art on the walls keeps the room recognisably Bar Harbor rather than generic.

Start with the hot chocolate, then a bagel

Order the hot chocolate first, since the house sauce is what the place is named for. If coffee is the point instead, take an Acadia Coffee Company espresso drink, a latte or a cappuccino, with whichever milk you prefer. Beside it, a house-made bagel is the obvious pairing: plain if you want to judge the bake, or built into a breakfast sandwich if you want a meal out of it. For the sweet end, truffles are the compact choice and the bark with fruit and nuts has more texture. A first visit that covers the ground is a hot chocolate, a bagel, and a couple of chocolates to carry off.