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Why drinkable desserts are the solution to the growing afternoon daypartWhy drinkable desserts are the solution to the growing afternoon daypart

Holly Petre, Assistant Digital Editor

January 10, 2024

 

Desserts can be a tricky sell. Guests love them and they’re highly profitable, but it’s not always easy to convince customers to invest in the extra time, money, or calories.

One option is to make them drinkable.

Beverage consumption in general is surging as consumers turn to menu items that are fast, portable, customizable, and satisfying, especially in the growing afternoon daypart. Restaurant companies large and small have noticed, and are responding with an array of drinkable desserts.

Whether they’re milkshakes, dessert cocktails, coffee slushes or other options, these sweet, fun, and often textured drinks are striking a chord with guests.

Guard and Grace, a steakhouse concept that’s part of the TAG Restaurant Group and has one location each in Denver and Houston, recently added a cocktail list to its dessert menu.

“We’ve never really had a dessert cocktail menu before, and we wanted to give people what they didn’t know they wanted until they had it,” said the restaurant’s “bar liaison,” Jake Pike. He added that sometimes the dessert cocktails are ordered with dessert, and sometimes they are the dessert, especially after guests have had a full meal and “want a sweet libation to round it out.”

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About the Author

Holly Petre

Assistant Digital Editor

Holly Petre is a digital editor for Nation’s Restaurant News as well as the host of NRN’s podcast, Extra Serving, and producer for Informa Restaurant and Food Group’s other three podcasts, One On One by Food Management, Off the Shelf with SN and In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn. Holly holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Sculpture, fibers and Material Studies and Ceramics from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A native New Yorker, Holly enjoys her place on staff as the resident pop-culture expert and millennial with a sassy attitude and great sense of style.

Holly Petre’s work on Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality often covers marketing and trends, either aimed-at or examined-through the millennial mindset. Holly is responsible for introducing TikTok and Twitch to NRN and RH readers as well as explaining terms like “Karen” to staff and readers alike. She also spends her time on staff trying not to make every headline a pun.

Holly Petre hasn’t spoken at any events or on panels, but she is readily available with a killer shoe wardrobe and several witty quips.

 

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