NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS
Why Can’t Restaurants Serve ONE Small Dessert? Monsters Aren’t Enjoyable.
Restaurants can help people lose weight & not contribute to the problem. Selling only large desserts can be a money-losing proposition.
Synopsis
We’ve gone through New Year again and, no doubt, half of the population has made a resolution to lose weight. I lost weight years ago without a special diet or exercise. My link in the References explains how I did it.
Restaurants are one of your worst enemies with their huge portions. My wife and I usually split the main dish. Sometimes, we take half home and split the other half.
She can’t eat regular desserts, but I like them. However, I frequently have to skip the dessert because they run over 1,000 calories — huge. I need a total of 1,500 calories per day to maintain my weight. Throw 1,000 calories on top of the main dish, then I could eat only one huge meal per day, a dog’s diet. I usually skip dessert.
Restaurants should have one small dessert on their menu!
Desserts are not a necessary part of a meal. However, even the income from a smaller dessert is better than zero.
Experiences
Olive Garden used to serve a miniature pudding-type dessert around 200 calories, the Dolcini. I heard that they sold thousands of them. They are still listed on their website, but our local restaurant no longer has them.
Most desserts consist of one large portion, but Olive Garder’s Zeppoli could be served two ways, regular and petite. The regular portion contains 7 soft, traditional Italian doughnuts dusted with powdered sugar (810 calories), served with chocolate sauce for dipping (220 calories). I would pay 50% of the regular price for two doughnuts and half of the sauce.
I suspect our local Olive Garden would have to get permission from Corporate to make such a change.
Our local restaurant and bar, City Fire, operates under a completely different philosophy. They will serve anything if they can make it. They’ll serve half-portions of main dishes, like flatbreads and pasta dishes, if they can easily be split. Even some sandwiches.
They have a large dessert with bananas, berries, 3 scoops of ice cream, and milk chocolate that turns solid when it hits the ice cream — a very large dessert. However, they will sell me one scoop of ice cream. I did have to convince the cooks not to roll 3 scoops into one ball, that I really did want just one regular scoop that would maintain my figure.
Last year at the New Year party, they served a smaller “Apple Blossom” dessert. It tastes like a warm apple pie but is about 1/3 of the average restaurant slice. I asked that they add that wonderful item to their regular menu, and they did. It now gives me a choice of two small desserts.
My wife cannot eat any of this high-calorie, very sweet desserts for dietary reasons. She usually has fresh fruit when at home. City Fire uses fresh oranges in some of its drinks. They agreed to sell us one orange, sliced into wedges. No other restaurant has ever agreed to do this. In Houston, we used to bring our own grapes to one restaurant, but this is much better.
City Fire has probably sold couple-hundred oranges over the past year.
Restaurants not only try to attract customers, but they also must pay attention and not drive customers away. Our favorite Mexican restaurant nearly did that with us. I usually order one taco and a side of refried beans. They recently changed their menu so that most customers would spend a minimum amount.
On the last visit, they refused to sell me one taco, saying that 3 was the minimum number. Yesterday, we spent 10 minutes discussing if we should ever go back. It was a close decision to try one more time. We decided if they refused to sell us our favorite order, we would leave and go somewhere else. They did without any argument, so they are still on our occasional lunch list.
Conclusion
Restaurants try to maximize their profits with each dish. That makes sense most of the time, but it may drive away customers in some cases. We go to a number of local restaurants, but if the desserts are too large, I don’t order any.
Restaurant managers need to learn: Any sale is better than zero.
Note: We don’t worry much about COVID (see risk reference). City Fire is located in the middle of a retirement community where most people are vaccinated, most customers are regulars, the tables are reasonably spaced for a bar, not many people are standing in groups, and the dance floor is not packed. The other restaurants mentioned are nearby.
References
- Small desserts helped to keep it off
- COVID risks defined
- City Fire, Olive Garder, and the Mexican restaurant fall between the medium and lowest risks