On: NicosiaThe elegant eight-course tasting menu at the new dessert-focused restaurant in San Antonio may include dishes made with coconut, caramel, cane sugar and peaches from a local farm. But it also includes some unexpected ingredients, like sweet onion, black garlic, and tomatoes.

“I wanted people to have the same experience with a delicious tasting menu,” says Tavel Bristol-Joseph, executive chef and partner, 2020 F&W Best New Chef. The chef, along with chef de cuisine Karla Espinosa, aims to capture all the major flavor profiles during the experience, including sour, salty, bitter and sweet, he says, “but all through the lens of a pastry chef.”

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Nicosi is one of the new restaurants that draws attention to the dish traditionally served last. The concept isn’t new, of course—pastry chef Chicka Tillman pioneered the venue in New York in 2003, when she and her husband Don Tillman opened ChickaLicious Dessert Bar. (The couple closed the restaurant in July after a 21-year run.)

World-famous pastry chef Will Goldfarb took office Room 4 Dessert In New York in 2005, the avant-garde tasting menu experience continues in Ubud, Bali, and Cronut king Dominique Ansel opened the sweet and fun UP (Unlimited Possibilities) in 2015. These innovative concepts formed the basis of the novel, but novel on demand Experiential dining experiences continue to grow, thanks in part to social media; Chefs across the country are putting their own new spins on dessert for dinner.

Bristol-Joseph says she was inspired to create her own dessert bar by visiting Golfarb’s Room 4 Dessert in New York City when she was 17 years old. “Over the years, as I have gained more experience, I have realized that the tasting menu offers a more interesting and immersive way to tell a story through dessert,” he says. “Every menu has the potential to showcase the same level of drama and technique.” However, he notes that while savory dishes adhere to certain traditions, “desserts offer more creative freedom.”

At Nicosi, guests can watch this creativity from one of 20 front row seats surrounding the kitchen area. Although Instagram has a big role in the popularity of dessert tasting menus — the theatrical, often colorful concoctions look particularly seductive in the Juno filter — cameras are banned at Nicosi. The purpose of the rule is to encourage table presence and help maintain some of the surprise of the experience.

While Nicosia focuses only on dessert, some traditional restaurants have embraced this trend with special dessert tasting menus. On: Kayu by HirayaThe restaurant, known for its progressive Filipino cuisine and opened in Washington, D.C. in January, offers an eight-course chef’s counter menu at the bar, as well as a three-course dessert menu.

The program is directed by Pichet Ong, a graduate of Jean-Georges Vongerichten and famous for his sweet tooth. For the first menu, the chef used recipes from his 2008 cookbook. Sweet SpotIt was served in Vongerichten’s Asian restaurants. Currently on the menu, a sour plum vinegar granita, “based on the classic Shanghainese tomato salad marinated in plum wine,” is paired with tender chevre and a plate of Concord grape jelly. The second course uses chocolate malt powder Milo for a pudding with malted chocolate and caramel popcorn, “because it’s light and rises well in the sweetness and intensity of the dish to follow,” says the chef, adding durian ice cream, pandan sticky rice and smoky coconut for the final course. karameli, “It should be the perfect place for anyone who loves Southeast Asian flavors.”

Currently, pastry chefs at other restaurants are experimenting with limited-edition dessert tasting menus. Katie Button in Asheville, North Carolina, recovering from heavy damage following Hurricane Helene. La Bodega by Cúrate held a five-day dessert pop-up last August. Pastry chef Andrew Buie’s four-course menu featured Spanish flavors in the form of desserts such as burnt basque cheesecake, sacher torte and citrus tart.

in Brooklyn, Restaurant Yuu It opened last May with a delightful tasting menu that blends chef Yuu Shimano’s Japanese heritage and traditional French training. Recently, the restaurant was awarded a Michelin star and hosts limited-edition dessert experiences under the leadership of executive pastry chef Masaki Takahashi.

The chef, who trained in Osaka, Japan and has worked at fine Tokyo restaurants such as Joël Robuchon and Narisawa, had some concerns that the experience might involve eating too many desserts in a row. But diners have embraced traditional French tarte Tatin techniques and dishes such as apple tart made with Honeycrisp apples, Calvados caramel, chestnut cream and fig butter, and Mont Blanc, inspired by the classic nineteenth-century Parisian dessert, with sweetened local chestnut puree Yamazaki. 12 year old whiskey cream and smoke.

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For the first tasting menu in July, Takahashi chose color as the theme; for example, a green plate with fresh melon, mint and matcha, and a purple plate with blueberry mousse, currant sauce in black currant meringue, cream cheese ice cream. and red shiso jelly.

“This thematic approach made it easier for guests to understand the concept,” he says.

However, for a true dessert lover, the concept of dessert at dinner makes perfect sense.