Dessert samplings sweeten sales figuresDessert samplings sweeten sales figures

Bret Thorn

There has been a lot of talk recently about customers’ demands for smaller portions, and the wave of better-for-you options that restaurants have introduced over the past couple of years have achieved more success than naysayers predicted.

Still, most customers like to indulge, and restaurants can boost their check averages by enabling them to do so.

When it comes to dessert, a gigantic $8 slice of mud pie might seem like overkill at the end of a meal—especially after all those New Year’s resolutions to lose weight.

But how much impact can a sweet $2-$4 nibble have?

Quite a bit, restaurateurs are learning, as they capitalize on customers’ penchant for multiple mini bites with dessert tastings.

“I love desserts,” says Vita Shanley, former executive pastry chef of SW Steakhouse at the Wynn Las Vegas. “But I love [savory] food as well.”

So she wasn’t about to have a full meal and follow it with four big desserts. But if they were four small desserts, that might be worth considering.

She figured her customers had a similar mind-set, and so she introduced a four-item dessert sampler. Usually comprised of something chocolate, something fruity, a custard and a nutty dessert, “we sold them all night long,” she says.

Now the executive pastry chef at Prime restaurant in Huntington, N.Y., Shanley offers it as a verbal special on slow nights. Intended for two people, it costs $24.

Matt Owens, executive pastry chef of Palm Terrace Restaurant at The Island Hotel in Newport Beach, Calif., takes a similar approach with his dessert menu’s “small bites” section, designed for those who want to sample more than one dessert.

“No one’s going to go out and buy three or four large desserts,” he says. “This gives them the opportunity to try three or maybe four desserts and maybe not overindulge themselves. Quite a few guests order more than one. Others want just a little piece to fix their sweet tooth.”

He also sells regular-sized desserts for $9.50-$11.50. The minis sell for $4.75-$6, and on occasion each member of a four-top will order all four of them, for a total of 16 desserts.

He chooses the items on his “small bites” dessert menu based on sweets that will still look good when presented in miniature form. Those include a small apple spice cake, $4.75, a petite passion fruit napoleon for $4.75, “A Little S’more” for $5.50, and a miniature gianduja cake for $6.

Marc Murphy, chef-owner of two-unit Landmarc in New York City, offers only $4 mini desserts, based on the idea that most diners just want a few sweet bites at the end of a meal. But he found that all six of his desserts together also sell well for $16.

He says he learned that people just want a few bites of one sweet thing, but they’ll eat more of several sweet things.

“Some people tell me I have the best crème brûlée in the world,” he says. “I don’t agree with that, but I think we have the best-sized crème brûlée in the world.”

Murphy occasionally introduces dessert specials, but he finds that his regular crème brûlée, tiramisu, lemon tart, chocolate-hazelnut éclair, blueberry crumble and chocolate mousse offer something for everyone—or everything for someone who really enjoys dessert.

“Our percentage [of dessert sales] is definitely higher than other restaurants,” he says. “If a waiter can’t sell someone a $4 dessert, they need to start over from scratch.”

The management at Seasons 52, the seven-unit concept of Orlando, Fla.-based Darden Restaurants, discovered a similar phenomenon. One of the concepts’ missions is to offer food that is comparatively healthy, and so for dessert they offered 3-ounce “mini indulgences” that now sell for $2.25 each.

For guests who want something sweet at the end of the meal, “a mini indulgence is irresistible,” says Deborah Robison, Darden’s director of media and communications. And if they want a full dessert, they can order three—or more.

The desserts are brought to the table as a single flight, and the customers can pick the ones they want.

“Often a party will keep the entire flight and taste all nine desserts,” she says, noting that almost every guest orders at least one.

In a sign of the success of Seasons 52’s desserts, it has been copied by several of its competitors, as well as by independents.

Julian Clauss-Ehlers, the chef of Cooper’s Tavern in New York City, also offers $4 mini desserts, which he says relieves customers of the stress of making that $10 investment in a dessert at the end of the meal.

“We sell at least one dessert to every table now, at least,” he says. “Even at lunch we’re selling desserts.”

Popular ones include his warm brownie served with a mini scoop of vanilla ice cream and his mini sundae with fresh berries, pieces of cheesecake, chocolate chip cookies, raspberry sauce and whipped cream.

The small desserts add a little bit to the check and might encourage guests to stay for coffee or dessert wine.

“It really does give the power to the guest to choose what they want,” he says.

But not all dessert tastings are about mini indulgences and giving customers choices. Sometimes it’s just about big-time indulgence.

Sona in Los Angeles is known for its extravagant, avant-garde dinner tastings prepared by chef-owner David Myers, but pastry chef Ramon Perez does three- and six-course dessert tastings in a similar vein.

“A lot of people come in just for dessert, and they’ll decide on a three- or six-course dessert tasting,” says Perez. The three-course option is $29. Six courses go for $55.

A three-course dessert tasting usually is actually four courses, starting with an amuse-bouche, such as a shooter of Greek yogurt foam with candied aloe vera, for which the aloe is diced and cooked in vanilla-scented simple syrup.

The next course might be a honey-spiced tangerine with tangerine foam, fennel ice cream and pink peppercorn vinaigrette, followed by a banana mousse with fried banana chips and macadamia praline ice cream. That could be followed by warm pumpkin cake with cardamom ice cream, preserved turmeric and pomegranate, topped with a sage chiffonade.

Perez’s six-course dessert tastings usually are closer to eight courses. So he might continue with a bitter orange soup with prune ravioli, vanilla bean ice cream and orange segments marinated in Szechuan peppercorn syrup.

Next would be a couple of chocolate desserts. One might be a dark cylinder with a sesame tuile, chocolate sorbet, hazelnut vinaigrette and “menthol air” made by dropping menthol crystals in simple syrup, adding lecithin and then whipping it with an immersion mixer.

Next is another dark chocolate with sous-vide pineapple—flavored with rum, vanilla and sugar—cilantro ice cream and coconut-milk emulsion.

He ends the tasting with a selection of chocolate candies made with different liqueurs.

“It’s definitely a journey,” Perez says.