People are eating desserts now they wouldn’t have eaten five years ago, and they’re willing to try more than chocolate cake and pie.” Marini makes sure his dessert menu at The Chophouse steers clear of those mainstays because he knows his competition is stiff. “In this area, people make their own pies a lot, and I don’t want to compete with grandma and mom,” he says. So he ventures slightly outside that culinary comfort zone with seasonal variations of crème brulée, panna cotta and a peanut butter mousse topped with chocolate ganache. Other sweet treats include an eight-pound chocolate cake, a molten cupcake with fudge sauce and “a bunch of different garnishes like spun sugar, gaufrettes or pretzel sticks dipped in white or dark chocolate,” he says. Marini and his team are always looking for ways to improve The Chophouse, and that includes taking their customer comments very seriously. They’ve thought often about taking the cheesecake and tiramisu off the menu, but customers won’t have it. “We try to keep things seasonal,” Marini says. “I’m one of those people who believes that berries are best when the man upstairs says they’re best, though you can get them frozen any time of the year. But the cheesecake and tiramisu are safe, because if we took them off the menu, we’d really hear about it.”
Russian Creme from The Prime Rib Below: Summer Berry Bar at Brother’s Coffee Right: Slice of chocolate cake from The Chophouse
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GILLETTE