Joan’s on Third

Posted by Edmund in Bakeries & Sweets, Los Angeles | 2 comments

Joan’s on Third

8350 West 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048

I was on Melrose the other day and decided to stop by Joan’s on Third, another café/patisserie, on my way back home. LA is just full of great little spots like Joan’s to have some breakfast or lunch or to grab a sweet. Of course, I’m not really concerned with anything other than the sweets. Particularly, Joan’s is supposed to have some great cupcakes—so good, in fact, that Giada on the Food Network’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” went so far as to mention the chocolate coconut cupcake as the best sweet she has ever eaten. That’s some real cred!

Needless to say, I was pretty excited to head over, even though I was so full I really shouldn’t have been eating any sweets. Still, I just had to test out the “ultimate” cupcake. When I entered, though, there was no available seating, even though there is tons of seating inside and outside the store. I was surprised, since it was around 3 pm. The place, though, does have a nice vibe to it. It has lots of space and a large variety of goods, with two separate areas for sandwiches and for sweets, in addition to a market for some gourmet goods, like chocolates (though the selection for gourmet goods isn’t as nice as at Susina).

Anyway, with no space available, I had to take my cupcakes to go. Moreover, the chocolate coconut cupcake was all sold out, so I had to settle for a couple other chocolate cupcakes. Needless to say, I was just dying to try them out, but I had to sit through a good 40 mins of LA traffic just to get back home. Upon my arrival, I almost instantly and instinctively opened up my box of treats and let the tasting begin!

What I had (recommendations would be in bold if there were any):

1. Oatmeal Raisin Cookie: My brother, an oatmeal raisin cookie fanatic, liked it a lot. Really solid. Oaty, nice, and fresh. Pretty big too for the price. For me, just too cold, too boring, and too “healthy”—very little butter to it, more focus on oaty-ness, rather than gooey, greasy, doughy-ness. Still, solid flavors came through, not overpowering. A good, safe bet. Very good for a cookie.
2. Chocolate Cloud cupcake (marshmallow fluff covered in chocolate, on top of a chocolate cake): Awesome concept, awesome design. Huge chocolate cloud. The marshmallow part was right on—very nice, light, refreshing, and just sweet enough, not cloying. Cake was also really solid—near the top of my cupcake list actually. It seemed like real chocolate cake. Only problem with cupcake is that it’s not a real cupcake—you can’t eat the “frosting” with the cake at the same time, because the “cloud” is just a humungous swirl. But both parts are great, and it’s definitely a great treat, especially for the marshmallow flavor.
3. Snickers cupcake: Again, chocolate base is really good. Snickers part isn’t bad either, and it surprisingly isn’t cloying. Actually, the Snickers blends well with the cake, giving it an extra sweetness that’s nice. Not as good as the cloud, but definitely good. Still, stay away from Snickers cupcakes in general, since it’s not the best flavor.

As far as the supposedly legendary chocolate cupcakes go, I have to say that Sprinkles in Beverly Hills has a chocolate flavor that is definitely better, as do, to a lesser degree, Kiss My Bundt in West Hollywood and Georgetown Cupcake in Washington, DC. Joan’s is a bit overhyped, and I really can’t recommend any of the treats that I ate. To be fair, though, I do have to try some of their other goods before casting a verdict.
Taste: 2.7+/5.0
Ambience: 3.0/5.0
Overall Score, as a bakery and as a café: 2.8+/5.0