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Clear your calendars and brace your sweet tooth: the obsession with Dubai chocolate in NYC continues strong.
This Saturday, April 26, at noon, the Ghirardelli Chocolate Experience Store inside the Empire State Building will serve up its Dubai Chocolate Sundae, an ultra-luxe riff on the viral “Dubai chocolate” bar that’s been making waves (and wrecking diets) across TikTok and in real life. Keep in mind that the dessert will only be served until supplies last.
Inspired by Fix Dessert Chocolatier’s famous Can’t Get Knafeh of It bar in Dubai—dreamed up by Sarah Hamouda as a pregnancy craving for the Middle Eastern dessert knafeh—the sundae takes things up a notch. Ghirardelli’s version layers vanilla ice cream with pistachio butter, white chocolate, shredded phyllo (aka kataifi) and the brand's signature handmade hot fudge. The treat is finished off with whipped cream, caramel drizzle and a literal gold-leafed Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Caramel square. In short: this is not your average scoop.
Hamouda started testing recipes in her Dubai living room with no prior chocolate-making experience, combining nostalgic flavors like pistachio cream and crunchy pastry. Her husband, Yezen Alani, joined her in launching FIX Dessert Chocolatier, which began by selling one bar a week. That is, until a viral ASMR-style TikTok, showing off the chocolate’s gooey interior, sent demand skyrocketing and their delivery app crashing.
The Ghirardelli sundae, which caused a frenzy at the brand’s San Francisco flagship earlier this year, is the latest evolution of that global obsession, and we know if there’s one thing New Yorkers love, it’s a good dessert drop. Ask anyone who’s waited hours for a Dominique Ansel Cronut, a Levain cookie or Magnolia Bakery’s banana pudding back in the day.
While the Dubai Chocolate Sundae has all the makings of the next sweet status symbol, this is a first-come, first-scooped situation, and supplies are limited: so show up early, bring a friend and maybe wear stretchy pants? Whether you're a chocoholic, a TikTok trend-hopper or just in it for the gold leaf, you won’t want to miss this sweet release.