PARK SLOPE — A sweet treat that's a favorite snack for skiers is coming soon to Seventh Avenue.
Waffle Cabin, a national chain that serves Belgian waffles out of ski-up wood cabins at mountain resorts, will open this spring at 427 Seventh Ave. between 14th and 15th streets.
"We're super excited to be able to bring this to the New York City area," said owner Vanessa Ingrao. "It's an amazing product and there's nothing else like it out there."
Ingrao, a mortgage loan underwriter who lives in Long Beach, Long Island, discovered Waffle Cabin while learning how to snowboard on Mt. Snow in Vermont.
"I was literally falling down the mountain and as I'm falling down the mountain I smell this amazing sugar aroma in the air," Ingrao said. "I said to my husband, 'What is that? I need that.'"
Ingrao fell in love with the waffles' sugary taste and few years later opened a Waffle Cabin franchise in Long Beach — the first location that wasn't a mountainside log cabin.
The Park Slope location will have a few seats and will also serve coffee, espresso drinks and cold brew. But the star of the show will be the waffles, which are best experienced without toppings because of their unique flavor, Ingrao said. (The Park Slope shop will, however, offer dark chocolate, strawberry, marshmallow and caramel topping.)
Waffle Cabin's Belgian founders import beet sugar from Belgium to make the dough for the waffles in Vermont. The dough is flash frozen and then shipped to franchisees nationwide, Ingrao said.
The dough is studded with bits of unprocessed, unrefined sugar that melt when the waffle cooks, forming a delicious caramelized crust, Ingrao said.
Ingrao hopes to open the Seventh Avenue location by the end of May.
The spot at 427 Seventh Ave. was previously home to the Taiwanese takeout spot Tea & Tea Cafe. Before that it was Parco, the longtime neighborhood cafe that closed suddenly after the owner died.
RELATED: Retail Rents on Park Slope's Seventh Avenue Jump 35 Percent
Other recent Openings & Closings in the neighborhood include:
► Unicorn Horn Store Opening in Park Slope Will Help Customers 'Feel Magical'
► Rainbow Bagel Store Coming to Park Slope
► Online Shoppers, Not Landlord, To Blame for Park Slope Shop Closing: Owner
