Breaking: Pastry Chef Kristen D. Murray to Bake at Cacao

Last night we hung around NW downtown's Cacao, Portland's most genius chocolate shop ever and, after comparing Minneapolis-based Rogue chocolatier Colin Gasko's Rio Caribe bar to Alan McClure's same-sourced Patric chocolate, learned that pastry chef Kristen D. Murray, freelance since the December 2008 closing of the long-awaited and eight-month-lived Lucier--think Gilt, or Corton, only horrifically mis-timed--will be working with Cacao on a series of pastries. Yesterday we tried-and-liked a robiola-and-chocolate truffle and a parsnip brioche drizzled with Cacao owners Aubrey Lindley and Jesse Manis' drinking chocolate (made from, you'll see the synergy here, Rogue's Rio Caribe), and we're jazzed to see what this east coast expat (she won awards for her work at Bostonite Barbara Lynch's No. 9 Park) is gonna come up with. Expect full-on Kristen-on-Cacao love within the next month.