Just a little bite will suffice: The new dessert paradigm puts indulgent and satisfying choices on the menu — just in teeny-weeny portions

> Published on: 03/11/05

The two-course meal was great, the bottle of wine a nice match. Now it's time to sip a cup of coffee and survey the temptations of the dessert menu.

Don't you feel like having a big, honking slab of Mississippi mud pie?

Well . . . no.

Today's post-SnackWell, "French Women Don't Get Fat"-toting diners are beginning to understand the value of smaller indulgences. Two or three bites of something sweet that really hits the spot will not leave you wanting more. In Atlanta, restaurants, supermarkets and bakeries are heeding the call for miniaturized desserts. Not lower calorie. Not lower fat. Not compromised for health concerns in any way other than size.

Small is the new yum at Rathbun's — the popular Inman Park spot that was hailed as one of the best restaurants of 2004 by both Esquire and Travel + Leisure magazines. All desserts on the menu yield four intense bites for a mere $3.15 apiece.

Pastry chef Kirk Parks says he and chef Kevin Rathbun "thought that if we miniaturized the desserts, then more people would order them." Indeed, a good 85 percent of Rathbun's guests go for a pastry — say, a baby banana peanut butter cream pie or Mexican chocolate mini cube. That's more than double the industry standard, according to Parks.

A small, rich dessert is "just like a great cup of coffee," Parks continues. "You remember it."

Sheryl Meddin, owner of Atlanta's late, lamented Dessert Place restaurant, has been a big fan of Rathbun's mini desserts.

"I like to have a bite of something sweet," Meddin says, "but I'll never order a dessert for myself. I'm always the one ordering a fork.

"I really like that they have those little portions," she continues. "I just want a little taste."

In Virginia-Highland, the bakery/gourmet shop Belly General Store thought it had devised the be all and end all in shrunken treats with its signature line of cupcakes.

Small, but not small enough. Enter mini-cupcakes, courtesy of Jennifer Etchison, pastry chef at Two Urban Licks. Patrons of this restaurant near the Carter Center can finish with a communal plate of six little jobbers that look like frosted sink stoppers ($6). But this lineup — two each of chocolate, red velvet and amaretto cream mini cakes — is the ultimate unapologetic mouthful.

The MO in this trendseems to be: Don't guilt out, just revel in the pleasure of two or three bites. It is this common-sensical advice that has propelled Mireille Giuliano's "French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure" (Knopf, $22) to a Top 20 book-sales ranking on Amazon.com.

Seasons 52 — a chain of health-aware restaurants based in Florida, with two branches slated to open in metro Atlanta in 2006 — takes this perspective to heart. Here, the menu focuses on healthy preparations and strives to keep each entree under 500 calories. So grilling is popular, butter is not. But come dessert time the choices include Key lime pie, pecan pie, tiramisu and cheesecake. The catch? All these desserts are packed, genielike, into shot glasses. The restaurant pitches the desserts, which cost $1.95 apiece, as "Mini Indulgences."

"These are real indulgences," spokeswoman Deborah Robison says. "Just mini."

Grocers are also answering the less-is-more demand. Whole Foods Market has had great success with its "Two Bite" line of bitty brownies, pecan tarts and macaroon cupcakes introduced a year ago. In its 12 Southeastern stores, the company sells more than 1,000 packages a week.

Regional bakery coordinator Steve Schulte acknowledges that the diminutivestature of these cakes allow buyers to both indulge and overindulge. "They're pretty addicting," Schulte says. "We know people are saying, 'I guess one more small one won't hurt . . . ' "

As a companion product, Whole Foods rolled out a line of fist-size layer cakes three months ago. Two fat layers, gobs of frosting, no tempting leftovers for pre-breakfast the next day.

Not coincidentally, mini cakes havebecomeall the craze at weddings. Some couples opt to display a variety of individual tiered cakes rather than one towering display of tradition. Others offer mini cakes as table favors at showers or on the big day.

Beaucoup, a mail-order wedding supplier in Mountain View, Calif., sends individually decorated cheesecakelets — to the tune of 100 a week — across the country for $24 each. Company President Polly Liu recalls one wedding that ordered 300 such cakes. You do the math.

Home bakers can get into the act, too, thanks to the well-reviewed new cookbook "Small-Batch Baking" (Workman, $13.95) by Alabaman Debby Maugans Nakos. The author has adjusted a variety of classic cake and pie recipes down to two-portion beauties. Finding the right bakeware can be a bit of a challenge, which is why Nakos recommends baking cheesecakes in a water-chestnut can.