Denver's ten best dessert spots

Rob Christensen

Pizzeria Locale
The lesson we learned the first time we dined at Pizzeria Locale: Save room for dessert. Because by the time we'd stuffed our pieholes with pizzas, salumi and salads, we were begging for mercy -- but we still couldn't stop ourselves from ordering a round of sweets. We're particularly fond of the delicate butterscotch pudding, the saltimboca -- pizza dough stuffed with nutella -- and the housemade gelati and sorbeti, all of them worth the trip to Boulder even if you skip the pizza pie.

Mark Manger

Bittersweet
Olav Peterson nabbed pastry chef Danielle St. John from D Bar, and since she took control of the sweets at Bittersweet, she's been rolling out better and better finales. We've swooned over her seasonal fruit-focused ice creams and the shortbreads topped with berries. Our favorite, though, could be the s'more, a plate pooled with chocolate and housemade marshmallow fluff, stacked with a crumbly housemade chocolate graham cracker and crowned with strawberries.

Cassandra Kotnik

1. Olivéa
Yasmin Lozada-Hissom is an absolute wizard with pastries, and she crafts desserts with an innovative touch, a mastery of technique and a mind for balance. We're constantly delighted by what she comes up with, whether it's the best chocolate-and-fleur de sel caramel tart we've ever had, doughnuts injected with lemon and ricotta (one of our 100 Favorite Dishes of 2010), or creme fraiche panna cotta. In a town with many great dessert-makers, Lozada-Hissom is truly a cut above. And that's what earned Olivéa the Best Desserts nod in the Best of Denver® 2011.

Have other favorites? Tell us about them below.

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All of these lists are also available on our Best of app; see it in action at http://bestof.voiceplaces.com/denver-boulder.