Pizza Today - September 2021 - 45

That being said, even the best desserts
rarely sell themselves. You can have
the best dessert menu around, but if
your servers take the 'vending machine'
approach and bring only what your guests
ask for, your dessert sales will struggle.
Train your servers and call takers to make
suggestions, and to enhance the guest
experience. How many times have you
heard a server say, " do you want dessert "
or " did y'all save room for dessert? " Those
questions kill me. How un-inspiring, and
really ineffective. What do you mean?
What do you have? What's your favorite
desert here?
How about, " we have the best tiramisu
that I have ever had, would you like a
slice? And how about a latte to go with
that? "
Most restaurants call this upselling. We
call it enhancing the guest experience.
Your servers shouldn't be like a sleazy
used car salesman, trying to increase their
PPA by selling your guests something
they don't want or need. Instead, look
at it from the perspective that you want
your guests to have the best experience
possible. And what better way than to
help educate them on a dessert that they
may enjoy or turn them on to a menu
item they may not even know about?
It's all about strategy! Our servers
are also trained to come by mid meal and
remind our guests to save room for " our
award-winning bread pudding. " They also
mention that it takes an extra 15 minutes
to prepare. This peaks guest interest in the
dessert, conveys that the dessert is special,
and that it's made fresh and is not sitting
in a hot well.
Servers also strategically pre-bus their
tables before bringing the dessert menu.
Dirty dishes are a reminder of how many
calories you've just consumed. We want
to minimize buyer's remorse. Remove the
evidence as quickly as possible and you'll
probably get them to bite - pun intended!
If you don't catch your guest before they
have to loosen their belt, offer them a
dessert 'to-go' to enjoy later. Remember,
though, product quality and guest
experience are still paramount. Don't offer
a takeout dessert that doesn't travel well.
In our case, bread pudding is best when it
is fresh, so we offer it take-and-bake style
with heating directions.
Your servers and call takers are the
ambassadors of your brand and know
your menu better than anyone else. We
have a server who can sell us out of bread
pudding every shift. She also is aware that
our bread pudding takes 15 minutes to
prepare, so she will switch her focus to
cannoli or send them with something to
go if we are on a long wait at the door.
I also feel that a good dessert menu
should be a blend of 'expected' desserts
along with desserts that are unique to you.
Those unique desserts become one of your
differentiators, what sets you apart from
the operator down the street.
For us giant New York cheesecake,
chocolate-dipped and traditional cannoli,
tiramisu and gelato are 'staples' in an
Italian restaurant, but then we have our
own style of bread pudding, house-made
cinnaknots, specialty cheesecakes and
spumoni ice cream. All of which are
unique to us in our market.
Spumoni ice cream is a house favorite,
and we give it away! While you can
find Spumoni in just about any Italian
restaurant in New York and New
Jersey, it's not as common in Northern
Colorado, so we celebrate birthdays and
anniversaries with a complimentary scoop
of Spumoni ice cream, on a decorated
plate, with a song from our team. This has
turned on many guests to this traditional
Italian dessert and they order it the next
time they visit!
As for our award-winning bread
pudding, it's not the typical gut bomb
bread pudding, with raisins and a dense
texture. This is our own spin on bread
pudding, using toasted Italian bread and a
Grand Marnier cream sauce, it's light and
fluffy and comes out in a sizzling cast iron
skillet and is a showstopper. It really sets
us apart and is kind of our hook!
Cross utilization of ingredients,
whenever possible, keeps your inventory
team and your bookkeeper happy and is
always a best practice. So, we make our
signature bread pudding and cinnaknots
with ingredients already stocked.
Cinnaknots are our fresh (un)garlicked
knots baked in butter, then dredged in a
cinnamon-sugar mixture, and served with
our house-made cream cheese icing. They
are unique to us and easy to make utilizing
ingredients we already have in-house.
In the end, there isn't a silver bullet to
selling desserts, but rather a multifaceted
approach. It is a combination of quality
products, a well-trained team, a little
strategy and lots of hospitality.
WHOLLY STROMBOLI'S
CINNAKNOTS
Cinnamon Dredge:
4 ounces ground Saigon Cinnamon
16 ounces granulated sugar
Your favorite butter substitute
5 par-baked, un-sauced " un-garlic "
knots
Cream Cheese Icing:
8 ounces softened cream cheese
12 ounces softened salted butter
5 ounces whole milk
.4 ounce vanilla extract
40 ounces powdered Sugar
Icing:
Whip the butter and cream cheese using
a stand mixer or hand blender until fluffy
and completely incorporated.
Then add the milk and the vanilla
extract and mix on low. Slowly add
powdered sugar until incorporated. Place
in portioning gun cartridge, pastry bag or
food pan and refrigerate.
Dredge:
Blend cinnamon and sugar in a container
with a tight-fitting lid and set aside
Fill a container with enough butter
substitute to dunk 5 knots a time.
Production:
Dunk 5 knots completely in butter
substitute and place them in a deep, oven
safe pan and bake in pizza oven for 3
minutes, or until the butter is melted and
the knots are hot.
Remove knots from the pan and
immediately dredge them in the cinnamon
and sugar mixture.
Serve with a side of icing.
MELISSA RICKMAN is co-founder of
Wholly Stromboli in Fort Lupton, Colorado,
and member of the World Pizza Champions.
Pizza Today - September 2021

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