Cold weather calls for hot chocolate. But it's not just a treat for kids anymore. By using dark chocolate, spices and herbs, or adding booze, many restaurants and bars are catering to the adult palate. But there are plenty of family friendly options, as well as a few places that make it easy to DIY at home.
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Drink Your Dessert at These Hot Chocolate Hot Spots
It's cold out and these hot chocolates are hot.

701 Restaurant
At 701, find The Bear Trap, which features bourbon and cayenne added to hot chocolate. It's then topped with whipped cream and drizzled with a syrup reduced from a house made version of Barenjager (German honey liqueur), made with oak-aged white corn whiskey and raw honey.
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Artfully Chocolate
Artfully Chocolate features 15 hot chocolate variations named after sirens of stage and screen in a range of milk, bittersweet, dark and white chocolates. The menu has fruity flavors, like raspberry and orange; spices, like cardamom and clove; or basics, like espresso and hazelnut.
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Bayou Bakery
High end 64% Valrhona chocolate is what constitutes the thick Bayou Cocoa available at Bayou Bakery. For an extra indulgent treat dip in some freshly fried beignets.
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Bibiana Osteria & Enoteca
Looking for some spice? Bibiana's hot chocolate features espelette pepper, chili flakes, vanilla and cognac or brandy with 65% chocolate.
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Chinatown Coffee Company
Omanhene Chocolate is a favorite for hot chocolate among coffee shops in D.C. As of last year, Chinatown Coffee Co. whisks the chocolate into Trickling Springs milk to incorporate it.
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Co Co. Sala
A chocolate-centric restaurant is naturally going to have great hot chocolate. Hot or frozen, you can pick from dark, milk, and white chocolate or peanut butter, salted caramel, or chipotle options. Can't decide? Get a flight of three.
Dolcezza Gelato and Coffee
One of the best ways to enjoy hot chocolate is with churros. The hot chocolate fills all the small pockets in the fried dough, making for a warm chocolatey pastry. Dolcezza's Valrhona hot chocolate makes it the best place to have the two together.
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Max Brenner Chocolate Bar
Known as "chocolate by the bald man", Max Brenner's main business is chocolate. Along with a full-fledged menu of chocolate desserts and pastries, there are hot chocolates infused with vanilla cream, or drizzled with caramel and sea salt. For a richer hot chocolate, get the oddly named Suckao, a cup of hot milk mounted over a tealight into which the drinker mixes in chunks of milk, dark or white chocolate.
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Oyamel Cocina Mexicana
It's no surprise to find Oaxacan hot chocolate at Oyamel. Flavored with cinnamon, vanilla, and cloves it's the perfect complement to the spices in Mexican cuisine.
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Peregrine Espresso
Like most coffee shops, Peregrine Espresso sells hot chocolate for the kids or the adult who never really grew up. They use chocolate from fair-trade producer Omanhene Chocolate, which is made exclusively from cacao beans grown in Ghana.
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Pitango Gelato
Pitango's thick European-style hot chocolate is made with organic milk. Those who want to enjoy it at home can purchase to-go bottles to reheat and modify with booze or other flavors.
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Pleasant Pops Farmhouse Market & Cafe
At Pleasant Pops the hot chocolate experience is DIY. Select a "hot pop" in milk, dark, Mexican, mint or salted chocolate on a popsicle stick to stir in to hot milk.
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Poste Moderne Brasserie
As part of its winter lounge, Poste is serving the Holey Moley -- hot chocolate with Milagro silver tequila, chili pepper, and cinnamon topped with whipped cream and chili.
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The Pretzel Bakery
The Pretzel Bakery has been making pretzel bombs with Nutella, and to accompany them they also serve what they call Hotellas. It's a rich, thick hot chocolate made with whole milk and Nutella.
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The Rye Bar
The Rye Bar is serving the Hot Coco, which features 64% Guayaquil chocolate. It's sweetened with a splash of Chambord (raspberry liqueur), and house-made whipped cream.
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The Sweet Lobby
Pastries and macarons aren't the only sweets at The Sweet Lobby. Thick European-style hot chocolate can be garnished with cardamom whipped cream, and one of the flavored house made marshmallows.
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