The shot-glass desserts that spread through casual dining last year have left a question in their wake: What’s next? With low prices stoking interest in mini-desserts, restaurateurs of all stripes are trying new Munchkin-sized options to convince guests not to forego a check-fattening treat after the main course.
Many of the recent efforts have focused on miniaturized versions of items that already were on menus. The eight-unit Big Bowl casual chain, for instance, reportedly cut the size of its brownie dessert in half, from 6 ounces to 3 ounces. Like the other five minis on what the Lettuce Entertain You holding calls its “dim-sum style” dessert menu, the new Double Chocolate Brownie is priced at $3.95, a 33-percent rollback from the full-sized version it replaced.
Other after-meal choices from the casual Thai and Chinese concept include an egg roll made with bananas and cashews; shrunken cheesecake and a mini crème brûlée.
The 20-unit Yard House casual chain also has added a smaller-sized crème brûlée as part of its Pint-Sized dessert line. In addition, the downsized array extends to an apple cobbler and chocolate and lemon soufflé cakes. The minis are offered à la carte or combined into a trio for sharing.
Robert Harbison, executive chef of foodservice operations for Princeton University, has added mini desserts that play off the slider craze. The petit strawberry shortcake and gelato ice cream sandwich, for instance, are made to look like sliders, the tiny sandwiches that have become the rage within all sectors of the restaurant business.
Harbison explained at a recent industry gathering that his 7,000-student feeding doesn’t use terms like “tiny” or “small” in describing the minis. Instead, by calling the desserts sliders and combining them into a three-item sampler, “I can get a pretty good dollar for them, and they cost us nothing,” he said in early March at the International Restaurant & Foodservice Show of New York.
Classic desserts and sharing have figured into the miniaturization trend since Orlando, Fla.-based Darden Restaurants opened its first Seasons 52 restaurant six years ago. The upscale casual concept was aimed at baby boomers who wanted to moderate their calorie intake without sacrificing taste. A much-noted effort to deliver on that promise was the Mini Indulgences dessert array, a roster of tasting-sized classic desserts served in shot glasses, either individually or as a shareable sampler. Each Mini currently is priced at $2.50.
Similar products at a comparable price since have been added by Chili’s Grill & Bar, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and Carrabba’s Italian Grill, among other casual-dining operations. Most such desserts are served in shot glasses or similar-sized glassware, and the majority of them were introduced during 2008.
By all accounts, those selections remain popular. But what’s changed, observers suggest, is the reason why.
Two or three years ago, explains Nancy Kruse, president of The Kruse Company and a noted authority on restaurant menus, consumers may have been drawn to minis because they were a “guiltless indulgence,” a taste that didn’t pack the calories. They also were visually appealing —“they’re delightful looking, just so darned cute”— and they facilitated sharing, a red-hot trend.
In today’s economic environment, she says, “the price has become much more important. It’s not just the small bite, it’s the small price.”
Coaxing patrons into springing for a dessert, even a bargain-priced one, has become more of an imperative for restaurateurs as customer head counts have fallen. Most chains cite a drop-off in traffic as their main problem, and guests who do visit tend to spend less. More than a fifth of the contributors to the Zagat dining guides say they’re adjusting to new economic realities by skipping appetizers, dessert or both.
Big Bowl’s experience suggests the mini-indulgences can counter that trend. Since the dim-sum style menu was added, dessert sales for the chain have climbed to 18 percent of sales, from just 4 percent previously, according to a spokeswoman. “People don’t want to spend seven or eight dollars for a dessert, but they’ll spend $3.95,” she says.
At Seasons 52, “almost every dinner guest has one or more Mini,” says a spokesman, noting that the price makes the treats “a great value.”
Because of that proven appeal, Kruse and others say, mini desserts are likely to remain on the upswing. Indeed, when the National Restaurant Association asked 1,600 chefs last fall to predict the hot menu trends of 2009, bite-sized or mini desserts were cited more often than everything except the shift to local produce. Bite-sized offerings topped the list of dessert trends, above samplers and combo platters, the usual fellow travelers of mini desserts.
Kruse wonders if the new iterations will play off another trend, the boom in the popularity of cupcakes, a miniature dessert almost by definition. She notes that one of T.G.I. Friday’s newest desserts is the Spiced Up Cupcake, a miniature pumpkin-applesauce spice cake.
Seasons 52 tries to keep its Indulgences array fresh by mixing in a few seasonal options, like strawberry shortcake in the spring and pumpkin mousse in the fall. It also rotates some items on and off the roster, such as red velvet cake.
Alison Brushaber, a veteran of casual-dining test kitchens who now heads her own menu development company, Dallas-based Chef Consortium, says she’s looking for executions that also might address a growing public interest in health. “Is there an opportunity in that space where a choice is a little bit better for you? Is there an opportunity maybe to use fresh fruit with a sauce — something simple, yet still delicious — because people want a treat?” she asks.
She cites the possibility of lollipop desserts, featuring little bites on a stick, which is an approach chef David Burke used to acclaimed success at the high-end davidburke & donatella and Park Avenue Café restaurants in New York City. Among the restaurants’ signatures were little cheesecakes on a stick.
Brushaber also says she expects the mini movement to come into play as more chains bundle dessert with an entrée to promote value, a trend currently in full swing within casual dining.