Just a Shot of Dessert

By Lisa McLaughlin

How do you make eating less more interesting? By serving menu items in unusual increments. Looking to appeal to diet-conscious diners, restaurants are jumping on the new trend. In New York City, at Pinch, pizza is sold not by the slice but by the inch, while the restaurant Cru provides wine by the half glass. And the Post House offers spoonfuls of strawberry shortcake and banana-cream pie for people who want a lighter dessert after a steak-house-size meal. At the Meritage restaurant in the Boston Harbor Hotel, guests can order just a spoonful of entrees like flash-fried Nantucket scallops, or chicken, porcini mushroom and truffle salad. Chef Pino Maffeo at L in Boston offers 4-in.-to-6-in.-high test tubes of select soups from his regular menu, while at 15 RIA in Washington, dessert, left, is served in a flight of shot glasses.