At a time when consumers are ever cautious about their restaurant spending, full-service operators have found their best chance to get customers to try a new dish is by menuing it as an appetizer.
In many cases the appetizers are shared, which gives chefs even more opportunity to flex their creativity muscles and put out new and innovative offerings.
“I think you can absolutely be more creative with an appetizer because it is such a small portion. You can really do more things in smaller quantities, and they always look a lot nicer,” says Tony Conte, executive chef of the Oval Room in Washington.
Conte estimates 95 percent of his customers ask for appetizers.
“It seems that now more than ever customers are ordering appetizers,” Conte says. “Desserts are hit and miss, but not the appetizers.”
One of the Oval Room’s most popular appetizers is Barbecued Lentils. Conte hydrates the lentils in a barbecue-flavored liquid and then cooks them in the same way that baked beans are processed. Instead of bacon, Conte adds cold-smoked and maple-cured foie gras. Other popular appetizer selections include Truffled Pasta; a Baby Beet Salad with passion fruit; Foie Gras Terrine with blackberry, vanilla, and black olive; and a Maine Peekytoe Crab Salad with rhubarb, young coconut, and lemon verbena. Appetizers range in price from $10 to $16.
Conte is even taking the consumers’ appetite for appetizers up a notch. Next year he plans to open a restaurant right across the street from the Oval Room, which is located at 800 Connecticut Avenue NW, that is dedicated solely to appetizers. “We are going to have 20 items on one sheet of paper. We don’t have a name yet, but we will start construction in June.”
At traditional casual-dining restaurants, 75 percent of consumers who purchase appetizers share them, according to Technomic research, while that percentage drops to 65 percent at upscale-casual restaurants.
