In the age of Instagram, a sweet treat needs to be a feast for the eyes, too.
That’s why restaurants are upping the ante with crafted desserts designed for likes as well as licks.
Spot Dessert Bar, located at 13 St. Marks Place in the East Village, has created “dessert tapas” that resemble everyday objects.
For example, the Harvest, a layered dessert with berries, Oreo crumbs and cheesecake, looks like a flower pot. Customers pour Earl Grey milk tea into the “pot” for “an amazing customer experience,” says Ace Watanasuparp, a founder of Spot Dessert Bar.
Spot Dessert’s founders — Watanasuparp, along with his cousin Chatchai Huadwattana, partner Mark Lee and Thailand’s Iron Chef Ian Kittichai — say that its opening a decade ago filled a void in the restaurant scene.
While St. Marks Place was buzzing with shops, bars and restaurants, the group noticed that there were few places to hang out after a meal. “We started out thinking about a menu of dessert tapas. We wanted to have, like, 10 small desserts,” Watanasuparp recalls.
Watanasuparp also realized seasonal menus could keep customers coming back. “We decided to change our menu every single season to coincide with spring, summer, fall and winter,” Watanasuparp adds. “We try to utilize fruits and ingredients that can only be found for that particular season, which makes for an exciting new launch every three months.”
They tapped Thai chef Kittichai to be the culinary director, Watanasuparp says, who “has brought in more cool and unique ideas to the table for us.”
Other offerings include the Matcha Lava, a warm dark chocolate cake filled with matcha ganache served with matcha green tea ice cream, and the Golden Toast, a warm honey toast served with strawberries and condensed milk ice cream.
Now, Spot Dessert Bar has four locations; most customers come in and order several desserts to share. “We are geared to families and groups of friends looking to get together, and it hits a lot of demographics,” Watanasuparp says.
The Spot team is now branching out in several directions. They are seeking locations for more corporately owned Spots, with Paul Berkman of JLL representing them in the quest for 600- to 1,500 square-foot locations. “They can create these in a tiny area with no infrastructure,” says Berkman of the mini-chain’s needs. Berkman is also scouting spaces at hotels and other nontraditional venues.
“We want to go into stadiums and movie theaters,” says Watanasuparp of some of their desired new locations — along with downtown Manhattan, Harlem, Hoboken and Brooklyn. The team is also looking to launch Spot’s first location overseas in Thailand, where Kittichai is known for “Iron Chef Thailand” and owns several restaurants.
Thailand will become Spot’s main hub as it expands into other areas including Hong Kong, China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam.
The company is also in the midst of obtaining the proper licensing to franchise Spot Dessert Bar.
They also founded Scoop by Spot — an ice cream for grocery distribution business that, Watanasuparp says, infuses “eastern ingredients with western culture.”
Spot is one of many creative dessert depots like Milk Bar and ChikaLicious. These joints are frequently tagged on Instagram alongside classics like Magnolia Bakery and Serendipity 3.
Even if the Insta-craze subsides, it seems Manhattan’s sweet spot is here to stay.
