At Tru a complimentary sweet comes to the table even before dessert is served. It's a palate cleanser to give you time to rest. Gand has another sweet surprise in store after the mignardises. Each diner receives a lollipop. The lollipop might be perfumed with saffron and pink peppercorns, or flavored with violet and embedded with the petals of bachelor buttons, or with mint flecked with tiny mint leaves.
Special occasions inspire unique mignardises.
For Valentine's Day last year the restaurant served a fresh strawberry dipped in white chocolate and dark chocolate so that it resembled a tuxedo, complete with a tiny bow tie . She usually makes a chocolate truffle, which may be perfumed with passion fruit, bourbon, toffee, mint or honey saffron. She also bakes palmiers, madeleines and langues de chat, which are long, thin cookies with the shape of a cat's tongue. The list of possibilities is long because she changes them almost daily. She recognizes, however, that even such small sweets may be superfluous for some diners at the end of their meal, so she's prepared for that eventuality.