Where to eat King Cake on Mardi Gras Day in NYC

Fat Tuesday is upon us. If you’re experiencing Mardi Gras FOMO, we’re sorry, that’s life outside of New Orleans. We already told you where you can celebrate in New York City tonight, but if you’d also like to indulge your sweet tooth— especially with Lent kicking off tomorrow — there are still a few places around town where you can find King Cake.

If you’re not familiar, King Cake is the traditional dessert served during carnival season in New Orleans. There are several variations, but typically it’s a round, hollow cake made of sweet, brioche-style dough, topped with glazed frosting and colored sugar. The picks on our list stray from the traditional style, but are delicious nonetheless — and outside of New Orleans we’ll take what we can get. Here are our favorites:

King Cake Roll at Brooklyn Kolache Co.

At the Bed-Stuy coffee shop and Texan-style kolache outpost, today is the last day to order the King Cake roll. Using kolache dough — made with flour, egg and milk, it resembles brioche in its slightly sweet taste and soft, fluffy texture — they then add ribbons of cinnamon-sugar and sweet cheese filling, and then top it with cream cheese frosting and sugar in Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and gold. It’s a decadent, festive cinnamon roll that pairs great with their nitro Cold Brew on tap.

King Cake at Butter & Scotch

Pairing sweets with booze is a more-than-adequate way to celebrate Mardi Gras. At this Crown Heights bar-bakery, merging the two is their speciality. Through today, they’re baking a ten-inch round brioche-style cake with brown sugar filling, topped with tequila glaze and lime and orange zest. Swing by after work today and enjoy a gooey slice with a hot-buttered rum or a boozy milkshake.

King Cake doughnut at Doughnut Plant

This one is definitely a doughnut and not a king cake, but honorable mention for cutting the pastry into this adorable,”Where the Wild Things Are”-esque crown shape and baking them with pecan and cinnamon dough, topped with a lemon vanilla glaze and colored sugar. They’re also serving Mardi Gras specials of chicory coffee, NOLA hot chocolate (a blend of white chocolate and chicory coffee) and pecan praline beignets. Available at all Doughnut Plant locations in NYC.