Appealing Postres: Desserts add color to menus, dollars to your bottom line

By Annelise Kelly

         Treating the dessert category as an afterthought increasingly risks leaving money on the table. Historically, many Latin restaurants haven’t put much effort into this category, offering a few predictable options like flan and fried ice cream, and diminishing customer expectations for memorable end-of-meal experiences.

         Today’s customers, however, are expecting more from the dessert category. According to Technomic’s “2017 Dessert Consumer Trend Report,” desserts are increasingly a focal point in the dining-out experience. They’re attaining “anytime” status, and 46 percent of dessert occasions are planned, not impulse-based. Additionally, 48 percent of diners say they’re willing to pay more for scratch-made alternatives, and 32 percent of consumers eat dessert post-meal at least twice a week. 18- to 34-year-olds are inclined to choose a specific restaurant because of an appealing dessert on the menu.

         Focusing on your dessert program can boost cover totals while helping generate customer interest and loyalty. If you’re ready to carve out a bigger piece of this pie, consider how these five dessert-savvy restaurants have moved beyond the expected to create enticing culinary finales for their dessert-loving customers.

Barrio

            Jimmy MacMillan is corporate pastry chef for DineAmic Group, which operates Barrio, an upscale Mexican restaurant in Chicago. DineAmic takes a strategic approach to ensure maximizing the category.

            “We’re lucky to have a dedicated pastry team. We do a lot of private dining and events,

so we’ve engineered the dessert menu to enable cutting in smaller pieces and composing them for passed desserts, buffet, or family-style, which has increased the dessert revenue from 10 to 12 percent,” MacMillan says. Additionally, general dessert revenues “don’t fluctuate much, so to me that’s a good sign that we’re maximizing our sales.” Because they serve many large groups of diners with family-style service, “a robust dessert menu allows groups to get maybe three or four things that everyone can share.”

            MacMillan finds that “in the dessert area we have a lot more leeway for creativity. You can really run with that, and make people feel like there’s a reason we have these desserts on the menu, they tell a story” reinforcing Barrio’s identity.

         “We usually have about five or six desserts. Two will be a little slower and that’s where we’ll create specials and play with the seasonal menu,” says MacMillan. He keeps real crowd pleasers listed, to satisfy return customers. Their signature item is the chocolate mole cake, a molten lava cake with ancho chiles, cinnamon, and chocolate sourced from South America. “Then true to our concept, which is fun and playful, we’ve added cinnamon toast crunch gelato, so you’ve got some Mexican ingredients, merged with a real American cake-and-ice-cream style dish, and it’s just been a hit,” says MacMillan. “It’s something everyone can like, all ages—it’s super relatable.”

         MacMillan finds that reinvigorating the menu with diverse offerings excites the staff. “They can ask ‘do you like fruit, do you like chocolate?’ That gives them some direction for talking to guests.” Management previews every newly launched dessert with staff to ensure total familiarity with the options, including how each might be modified to accommodate special diets.

Tallula’s, Santa Monica California

            At Tallula’s in Santa Monica, California, general manager Mary Thompson says the dessert program fits hand-in-glove with the restaurant’s overall philosophy: “That’s our relationship with local farmers, along with organic produce and small production, so for us it’s meant really embracing seasonality, which has kind of pulled us away from more traditional desserts.”

            Her current favorite—“I’m obsessed with it”—is the dulce de calabaza, poached pumpkin with a reduction of piloncillo sugar and pumpkin jus, topped with pepitas and purple alyssum. Inspired by the marina di chioggia pumpkin varietal available from a local farmer, the dish expresses the continuity she values between the savory menu and the sweet menu.

            Tallula’s traditional desserts feature seasonal, regional interpretations, such as a tres leches cake incorporating honey and chamomile served with fresh berries, and a vanilla rum flan with brown turkey figs. The solid favorite is the churro offering, which pairs light, bite-sized churros made from the light pasty dough pâte à choux with Mexican dipping chocolate. “It’s wildly embraced by our guests,” says Thompson. “Our dessert program has really increased guest satisfaction. They can see our passion for the ingredients, and the enthusiasm of the staff is contagious.”

            Thompson estimates 60 percent of tables order at least one dessert. “It helps that we’re a sharing plate style restaurant,” she adds. Tallula’s also includes the dessert list on the main menu as well as on a separate after-dinner list, “so we plant a seed for our guests early on in the meal.” Emphasizing dessert on the main menu also helps “plant the seed for ourselves to continue to focus on dessert,” says Thompson.

Little Brazil

            At Little Brazil in Wheat Ridge Colorado, owner Kallen Marques focuses on the traditional Brazilian confection known as Brigadeiro, a chocolate caramel similar to a truffle, and its two close cousins, Beijinho de Coco (coconut caramel) and Doce de Leite (sweet caramel). About a third of customers order at least one of the caramels, she says. “They’re very popular, our best-selling dessert. People love them because they’re little and satisfying and unique, and not expensive.” They have a powerful emotional draw for Brazilian expats and others with connections to the South American nation, where they have a beloved place at Brazilian birthday and wedding parties.

            She tops passion fruit mousse with fresh berries in summer and a rich chocolate ganache in winter. Pudim de leite, Brazil’s version of flan, combines characteristics of crème brûlée and Mexican flan, resulting in a creamier, less gelatinous texture. Sweet pastels, the Brazilian interpretation of empanadas, round out the offerings—the house favorite is stuffed with banana and Nutella.

            Marques advises restaurant operators to “limit your dessert menu to something you know is very unique to your culture, that isn’t easily found in the U.S. By keeping my prices low and my sizes reasonable, people are happy to spend a couple extra dollars.”

       The Brigadeiro and other caramels are $1.25 and the remaining options are all under $4, which keeps orders high and customers happy.

Tanta

            “For me, dessert and pastry are the most artistic part of a menu and a cuisine,” says Giancarlo Valera, executive chef at Chicago’s Tanta, a casual but upscale Peruvian restaurant. “In Peruvian cuisine we have a lot of deserts, mostly from ‘grandma’ recipes.” Valera considers these traditional flavors a creative opportunity. “We try to play around with these flavors, make it different, give them a twist,” says Valera.

            Tanta’s Cheesecake de Chicha Morada offers a creative interpretation of a few beloved

Peruvian traditional foods. The cheesecake is flavored with chicha morada, a traditional Andean beverage brewed from purple corn and pineapple, seasoned with cinnamon and cloves, and topped with an arroz con leche foam.

         The most popular choice is Mousse de Chocolate Fortunato. The mousse is made with 62 percent single-origin Peruvian chocolate and topped with crispy quinoa, cacao nibs and chocolate meringues, and paired with ice cream made from lucuma, a native Peruvian fruit known for its sweet flavor and crumbly texture.

            The dessert menu lists about five rotating selections, each matched with a suggested beverage pairing.

Andina

            Co-owner and native Peruvian Doris R. Platt emphasizes the power of story at Andina in Portland, Oregon. “When they hear the story they are fascinated,” says Platt. “Our role is to tell the story behind the dessert.”

            She cites the example of alfajores, which are composed of two round, delicate butter

cookies sandwiching a layer of dulce de leche. “They were brought to Peru by Spaniards, but the name and the origins are Arabic, introduced to Spain by the Moors in the seventh century. We tell guests when they are eating one, they are eating a piece of history. When guests know a little bit about how old the dessert is, and why we present it in such ways, they really like it and they ask for the same thing over and over.”

            Platt says Peru had no indigenous dessert traditions, relying simply on its broad variety of fruit. When Spaniards colonized Peru, they brought the cultivation of sugar, along with dishes from France, Italy and the Netherlands whose influences still resonate in the desserts of today.

            Andina’s Peruvian interpretations of familiar desserts include the Plato de Crème Quemada, featuring a rotating trio of crème brûlée such as chocolate, passion fruit, lucuma and blackberry. The Canutos de Quinoa Y Maracuyá is a quinoa-studded cannoli filled with passion fruit mousse, served with mango-lemongrass sorbet, mango chutney and mint coulis.

Annelise Kelly is a regular contributor to el Restaurante.