Toothsome aims beyond diners’ sweet-tooth
Universal Orlando was seeking the sweet spot when it comes to restaurants. What it cooked up was Toothsome Chocolate Emporium & Savory Feast Kitchen, which opened in August at Universal CityWalk.
“We wanted to create something larger than life,” said Modesto Alcala, CityWalk’s senior vice president of revenue operations. “We really love chocolate, so we weaved it throughout the whole restaurant.”
Therefore, the Toothsome menu includes items such as porkbelly sliders with a chocolate-bacon garnish, chocolate gnocchi, chocolate-almond bread and coffee-and-chocolate-stout chicken wings.
That menu also includes two pages of hand-crafted milkshakes plus three more pages of desserts. It’s not all about the sweets, Alcala said. For instance, there are hamburgers, pasta dishes and salads without cocoa.
Chocolate is “part of our DNA, but not 100 percent of what we are,” he said.
The Toothsome concept was a collaboration of Universal’s creative, entertainment and food and beverage teams, Alcala said. They landed on a turn-of-the-century, Steampunk look that runs from its towering smokestacks and moving gears outside to the vested, frilly look of the employee uniforms. The deep chocolate color scheme reflects both chocolate and the industrial revolution time frame.
“Over the course of 16 or 18 months, we really kept evolving the thinking. It lead us to a place where it’s turn of the century, Steampunk, chocolate-forward, but not in all items,” Alcala said. “It became a whimsical place — and there’s something for everyone here.”
The restaurant’s building was gutted after the NBA City restaurant closed there in August 2015, he said. A catwalk and more seating were added upstairs. Windows now give prime views of CityWalk from up there. Dining areas sport brassy and dark, wooden details, from the cocoa-colored flooring to the stylized ceiling fans on the patio. It has 424 seats, and it’s nestled between Hard Rock Cafe and the entrance to the Islands of Adventure theme park.
Toothsome’s ground floor includes dining, a retail space featuring T-shirts, hats, collectibles and specialty confections on one side, and on the opposite side is the Foundry, which serves up tall milkshakes, sundaes and crepes.
Its 13 distinctive milkshakes, which cost about $13, are rich with blended-in ingredients. For instance, the red velvet milkshake has a whole red-velvet cupcake blended into the beverage plus a heavily iced one sitting on top. The key lime shake follows the same trend. Other high-powered mixings include brownies, Nutella, chocolate cigars, cheesecake, Cinnamon Crunch Toast breakfast cereal and something called bacon brittle.
Alcala said he has seen families dine at Toothsome and each party at the table order a different milkshake. He’s also seen groups of people dressed in elaborate Steampunk gear.
“It’s wonderful to see,” he said.