There’s a hot new European dessert in Miami — and you can only get it in Kendall

Like all important trends, the best desserts eventually find their way to Miami. Churros. Pastelitos. Key lime pie. Buñuelos. Flan. Dulce de leche, which, quite frankly, could be served atop pretty much anything including a pile of kale, and few would complain.

Now, a hot new European dessert is making its debut in Kendall, the only place you can find it in Miami.

If you haven’t traveled to Eastern Europe for the past several years, you may not have heard of chimney cakes. There have been a few appearances in Miami, but they have been fleeting.

But in cities from Prague to Transylvania to Budapest, the popularity of the sweet dough covered in sugar and baked around a roller until crispy has grown so much that more than one country claims it as its own.

Max Goldstein, owner of the new Chimney Cake & Co. opening at the Dadeland Mall, said that several countries, including Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic, claim to be the origin of the cake, though most sources give that honor to Hungary.

All three countries, he said, want the European Union to make chimney cakes their historical dessert, much in the same way France has a special designation and protection for Champagne. Sparkling wine can’t be labeled Champagne unless it comes from a particular French region.

“Each country has a legend surrounding the chimney cake,” he says. “Recipes are passed down from grandmas to grandkids. This dessert has been a tradition for a very long time.”

We will leave the EU to figure out the provenance and tell you that the cakes are crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside and coated in a sugar glaze, cinnamon or sea salt. They take on the flavor of whatever you might want to stuff into them (they’re called chimneys due to their cylindrical shape and hollow middle).

At Chimney Cakes, which is located next to the Apple Store, you can create your own cone of wonder. If that’s too intimidating, order off the menu, which offers a variety of flavors (chocolate, Nutella, raspberry, lemon, coffee among them), with or without ice cream and special toppings. They cost $9.25.

Though the cakes are primarily a dessert or a snack to go with coffee — Chimney Cake & Co. has a full coffee bar, serving Viennese premium brand Julius Mienl — there are also three savory options for $9.95, one with ham and Gruyere cheese, another with cream cheese and salmon and a third that’s a play on the Caprese salad with mozzarella and tomato.

“We don’t want to be just a dessert place,” Goldstein says.

To that end, the business also added a panini press and makes sandwiches on the chimney cake bread ($11.25). Picture hot ham and cheese dripping over crispy dough, the sugar carmelizing into something magnificent.

Miami, Goldstein says, is the perfect place to appreciate the dessert, which improves with every cultural tweak (his Argentine family makes theirs with dulce de leche, he says).

“Miami isn’t just the dessert capital. It’s the food fusion capital,” he says. “That’s something unique about Miami.”

Chimney Cake & Co.

Where: Dadeland Mall, 7535 North Kendall Drive, Miami

Opening: March 18; open daily

This story was originally published March 16, 2023 at 4:30 AM.