Profile

Shopping’s gotten sweeter for the Bendel babes: Alison Nelson’s Chocolate Bar sits, like the cherry on a sundae, on the swank shop’s third floor, where fudge-brown and powder-blue walls hung with vintage hand mirrors give way to creamy banquettes. Windows overlook a posh Fifth Avenue stretch populated by the never-too-rich-or-too-thin brigade. Don’t be taken in by the fancy truffles lined up just so in the display case; Nelson’s mischievous aesthetic peeks through in T-shirts and buttons with safely sassy slogans—“Shake your bon bon!”—and a graffiti line of chocolate that features labels designed by New York artists. The sandwich selection is small but sophisticated: No- mayo, lemon- and caper-stoked tuna arrives on thick bread with olive tapenade; the Barcelona, a dangerously good baguette drizzled in olive oil, is smeared with dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt. Nelson picks her purveyors well: Bread is from Balthazar and brownies from her mom. For those who fancy size-zero couture as well as their sweets, single truffles are for sale. Indulge, linger, and then, get back to the important things, like shopping. — AnneLise Sorensen

Alison Nelson’s first Chocolate Bar is in the West Village, and there’s another in Long Beach Island, New Jersey.

The Barcelona, $7.50; no mayo tuna sandwich, $15.50