To-Go Desserts Give Operators a New Off-Premises Sales Lever

Dessert delivery at Chill-N Nitrogen Ice Cream has more than doubled since the pandemic, from roughly 9% of sales to over 20% today, with some stores above 30% — evidence that off-premises dessert is a growing revenue stream operators can engineer for, not an afterthought.

The context is a tough one. The Technomic Top 500 shows chain restaurant sales slowed again in 2025 as consumers pulled back on dining, though coffee, beverages and snacks, and chicken segments kept growing. Full-service restaurants, in particular, have unexplored white space in to-go dessert.

The logic is straightforward. Diners skip dessert for practical reasons: they are full, in a hurry, or — in online ordering — never scrolled down far enough to see the dessert menu. Operators can close those gaps by making dessert easy to order off-premises, telling customers it is available to go, and packaging it so it survives the trip.

Drive-thru and quick service concepts already sell treats this way routinely. Dine-in establishments largely do not. A guest who declines dessert at the table may still want it at home, a fit with consumers who increasingly want customization and the ability to eat restaurant food on their own schedule.

What works off-premises — and what doesn't

Leigh Omilsky, pastry chef at Chicago's Daisies and its sibling cocktail bar The Radicle, said the demand already exists: "People ask for desserts to go pretty frequently."

Her framing is deliberate. "I don't love the idea of to-go desserts, but I love the idea of being able to take a treat home for your partner/babysitter/kid/whatever," she said.

The constraint is product engineering. Dishes where temperature, ice cream, or a pour-over sauce is central to the experience travel poorly. Omilsky's solution is a parallel menu built for transport:

• pints of ice cream for take-home
• a "secret menu" of brown butter chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal cream pies — both vegan

"Desserts that are well suited for takeout are ones that can be room temperature and do not have an ice cream," she said. "If it's set in a bowl, has ice cream, or requires a pour-over sauce, just spend the time in the restaurant to enjoy it. We work hard so people can enjoy it in a certain way."

Ice cream operators are solving the refrigeration problem directly. Chill-N, which makes customizable, flash-frozen ice cream, gives each order an extra freeze with liquid nitrogen to prepare it for the trip home. That solid freeze extends product quality by up to 20 minutes — typically enough time for a delivery or takeout order.

David Leonardo, CEO of the Miami-based brand, said quality expectations are non-negotiable. "Consumers expect convenience, but they won't trade quality or personalization for it," he said. "Dessert has become an at-home occasion as much as a destination, and guests want it made for their needs, whether that's non-dairy, sugar-free, gluten-free, or kosher, and delivered in great condition."

Jars, add-ons and menu placement

A second trend is the jar dessert: portable, sustainably packaged and built for social media. Slim Chickens, based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, has sold jar desserts for years and recently added a Reese's Peanut Butter Brownie Jar to the lineup.

"We make them by hand and serve them in a mason jar with a lid, so you don't need to have room for dessert right then," said Ben Turner, vice president of brand performance. "Finish your tenders and take it with you."

The format shifts when and how the guest indulges. "They just want more say in when and how they enjoy it," Turner said. "With a lid on the jar, you can eat it in the car, save it for after the kids are in bed, or split it with someone. It's little treat culture with portability built in. The novelty helps too: a dessert in a mason jar stands out, and the jar is yours to keep and reuse."

Digital ordering is where the attach happens. Slim Chickens runs a highlighted add-to-bag recommendation that pops up and displays desserts, and it lists desserts as add-ons within menu items on third-party delivery platforms, so customers see them while building orders.

Lazy Dog Restaurants, the Newport Beach, California-based casual dining brand, uses the same checkout mechanics with suggested items like banana pudding.

"Banana pudding is our number one takeout item," said Laura LaVigne, vice president of marketing. "We feature it as a suggested add-on during online checkout to encourage guests to include dessert with their to-go meal."

What does this change for operators? It reframes dessert as a menu-engineering and packaging problem with proven digital attach points — transportable formats, extended-freeze processes, jar packaging and checkout prompts — rather than an in-restaurant-only sale, and the brands already running those levers are posting double-digit off-premises dessert mix.