Red Mango Chocolate PB Cheesecake from The Bean

This hot mess is actually a fallen, mis-handled slice of Red Mango's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake from The Bean.  Admittedly, I've fruitlessly ducked into The Bean countless times before on a search for Red Mango goods to no avail.  But, sure enough, there they were: hiding in plain sight on a separate shelf from the non-vegan fare. 

I thought The Bean might be too hip for me, but I was pleasantly surprised by how genuinely friendly and helpful the two girls behind the counter were-- even going so far as to tell me which cakes they usually carry, which are their favorites, and so on.  Very chill.  I do want to stress that the cake was in no way mis-handled by The Bean staff; in fact, they were quite delicate in the way they wrapped it to go.  Instead, the package was inadvertantly manhandled by moi as I trekked around the LES, and therefore I take full responsibility for the unfortunate resulting visual.  Note that the mushy messiness in no way affected the taste.

You're basically looking at sideview; here's the breakdown:

• The bottom layer is a thick, chocolatey crust (I don't think oreo).
• The second layer up is an even thicker "crust" of peanut butter cookie (yep, you heard me).
• Next is a layer of traditional cheesecake, not PB flavored as I had suspected (I'm not normally a fan of flavored cheesecake, so this was an unexpected bonus).
• I believe that the decadent chocolate fudge originated as the second layer from the top (I'm sure you can understand my confusion).
• And that would make the originating top layer the generous squirt (floret, if you will) of peanut butter icing.

This cake was delicious, but oddly not peanut-buttery enough for me (I really, really, really like peanut butter).  However, there's no denying it's decadence and any normal person fan of the PB/chocolate combo would surely go ga-ga for the undeniably innovative layering of textures and tastes.  As for me, I think I'd prefer to have a thick, peanut butter sandwich on toast... and then follow it up with a slice of Red Mango's incomparable Red Velvet Cake.