$13: Sugar

What: Three cheese sammy ($7), chocolate truffle brioche ($3), and peppermint marshmallows ($2)

Where: Sugar Bakery + Cafe, 1014 Madison St., 749-4105, FIRST HILL.

When: 12:30 p.m. Thursday

Total Cost: $13.03

Official Tasting Notes:
Let�s call a spade a spade: Sugar is bad for you. Which is why when I heard a bakery called Sugar was opening on First Hill, my ears perked up, like when you hear someone someone say �sex� too loud in the grocery store. How can one not be interested?

I had the opportunity to taste Sugar's brioche cinnamon roll before they opened, so I knew how soft and sweet owner Stephanie Crocker's little pastry twirls could be. This meant that I had the superhuman strength required to order an actual lunch before digging into the calorie case. (Yes, they have a small lunch menu, too - just sandwiches and salads.)

I chose a vegetarian sandwich, a sliced Macrina baguette piled with hearty slabs of three good cheeses, crisp red pepper and cucumbers, lettuce, and a light herbed mayo. (Correction: The sandwich chose me, because it was the only one they had left, at 12:30 p.m. on a weekday. Okay, so they're still working out some inventory issues. They just opened a week ago.) It was clumsily constructed and awkward to eat, but hit the spot once I wrestled it into my mouth.

Then I dug into the chocolate truffle brioche, basically the lovechild of a menage a trois between a cinnamon roll, a brioche bun, and a chocolate croissant. Valentine's Day idea: Put 12 of these puppies on sticks, with their swirly tops, and offer them to your sweetie in lieu of a bouquet of roses. They'll get you much farther.

But I mustn�t leave out the most important part: $2 of my Sugar experience went to a package of peppermint marshmallows. Soft and magically pillowy, these were like Altoids made of air. Someone offered me a hot chocolate, but I ate them plain, and fell in love. No regular store-bought marshmallow disintegrates on the tongue like a (good) homemade one can.

They also brought me my first peppermint marshmallow burp, which was actually almost as pleasant as the marshmallow itself. If only every meal had such a sweet ending.

Warning: Sugar is very pink inside: Pink stripes, pink clothing, pink art, pink Christmas tree. I happen to find it adorable, but if pink makes you uncomfortable, consider bringing your sunglasses.