Cookies crumble right for operators as old-fashioned desserts sweeten sales

Nation's Restaurant News, June 9, 2003 by Florence Fabricant

Old-fashioned desserts are riding a wave of popularity. Crisps and crumbles are on a long list that includes rice pudding, chocolate pudding, freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies, lemon-meringue pie and devil's food cake in high-end restaurants. Fruit-based crisps and crumbles are assembled easily without the expertise of a pastry chef, adding to their appeal across the board. Fruit in a ramekin or other baking vessel, a streusel or oatmeal topping and a quick reheat are all it takes. Ice cream on the side or even on top is often a must. Adding to the simplicity is the fact that the exact type of fruit featured can change easily according to the seasons, so the menu is not locked in.

In fact, at a number of operations across the country, the desserts are simply listed as fruit crisps or crumbles or seasonal fruit crisps or crumbles. One can find them at Bocca Rotis in San Francisco, which has a seasonal fruit crisp with gelato. Dahlia Lounge in Seattle also serves a seasonal fruit crisp, and Von's Grand City Cafe in Yakima, Wash., offers a crisp made with Northwestern fruit and topped with a butterbrown sugar-oatmeal crumble and accompanied with soft cream.

Bette's Ocean View Diner in Berkeley, Calif., serves a simple fresh fruit crisp. And Rocking Horse Cafe in New York has a fruit crisp made with poached fruit sweetened with maple syrup, seasoned with aromatic spices and served with ice cream.

The most popular rendition of crisps and crumbles, one that appears to know no season, is made with apples. It may have started as a New England tradition, but it has become a coast-to-coast classic. Candela in New York serves an apple-cranberry crumble with maple-walnut ice cream. Aria in Chicago offers an heirloom apple crisp with vanilla-walnut oil, cranberry-apple jellies and caramel ribbon ice cream.

Seasons 52 in Orlando, Fla., has an apple-walnut crumble as a minidessert for $1.95, included in a list of 10 choices. And Guy & Gallard in New York serves an apple crumble bar. At Link in New York a chilled custard cream with caramelized apples and raisins comes covered with a crisp streusel topping, turning a creme brulee into what amounts to a custardy apple crisp.

But then there are any number of variations, adapting the crisp and crumble to designer sweets. For example, Bouchee Restaurant and Wine Bar in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif., has a banana-brown sugar crisp, with coconut tapioca, candied cilantro and mango sorbet, a far cry from the home-style apple crisp. The Marine Room in La Jolla, Calif., offers a gianduja chocolate crunch with a pecan crisp, quince marmalade and fraise des bois liqueur.

Grace in Los Angeles has come up with a marzipan and kumquat terrine with marzipan crisps and candied kumquats. And DC Coast in Washington serves a chocolate mousse PB&J crunch with vanilla anglaise and cinnamon toast sticks.

At Alfredo's of New York a panna cotta with a mixed berry sauce comes topped with caramelized almond crumbles. And Cafe Boulud in New York has an apple betty on the menu with a warm, creamy apple filling, crispy oat crumble and cinnamon ice cream. There you have crisp and crumble both, all in a betty.

But all crisps and crumbles are not desserts. Blue cheese crumbles are featured as a salad garnish across the country. And Parmesan crisps, like the ones that accompany the Caesar salad at Tavern on the Green in New York, are also popular. Even macaroni and cheese can be turned into a crumble. At B. Smith's in New York, the dish is macaroni with a "plethora" of cheeses in a butter crumble gratin.