Tarci's cactus dessert.
Tarci’s cactus dessert. Photos by John Malik

At Soby’s, their best-known dessert is a banana cream pie, elements of which are familiar to anyone who’s ever had a slice of banana cream pie in Miami, Florida, or Boise, Idaho. Soby’s example is polished, with pastry cream and curls of white chocolate. Served on top of a handmade crust and cut into traditional pie wedges, it’s a delicious, albeit safe way for visitors to end their time in Greenville — and has been for many years. That slice of pie is easy for the staff to bring to your table because it moves in a predictable manner, and its comforting, familiar flavors are an easy sell.

Then the front door of Soby’s snapped open, a gust of wind chased white chocolate shavings across the floor, Cravin’ Melon’s “Sweet Tea” screeched to a halt and the diminutive Tarci Harger defiantly stood in the doorway. “Hey DJ, give us some of that Brazilian rock!” she said.

Her Chocolate Pinecone dessert is that jarring. It’s precariously balanced on a bed of toasted cookie crumbs and crushed pistachio nuts, anchored by a divot of traditional Brazilian chocolate cake, followed by a hazelnut praline mousse, caramel and dark chocolate mousse. Then it’s coated in a semisweet chocolate shell. If that’s not untraditional enough for Soby’s, a dessert like this must be produced upside down before being righted to receive its chocolate shell. How’s that for symbolism?

“I was a fashion designer in Brazil, and at my first store it was rather slow one day, so when I got home I made a dozen brigadeiro, a traditional Brazilian truffle,” Harger recalls. “I brought them to the store the next day believing these would bring in customers. Soon 12 brigadeiro became 500.”

Tarci and her husband, Vinnie, eventually immigrated to the states, and she found her American home at Soby’s as a line cook until pastry chef John Conti first asked for her help — then asked for retirement.

In no time she was sketching out her desserts on graph paper and studying the work of pastry greats such as Amaury Guichon. On one memorable evening, Soby’s hosted Michigan’s governor, and Harger spent a few days researching Michigan before proposing a chocolate cherry “tree” dessert made with Michigan cherries. On my visit she presented me with what looked like an Arizona desert dessert. Miniature, edible saguaro cactus straddled tequila spiked “rocks,” cayota cookie crumble and a pistachio cactus mousse.

I imagined Soby’s waitstaff looking at this delicate scene and wondering how on earth they’d successfully deliver it to a table.

“Chef, come on. I know better,” she said. “I make sure all of my desserts are properly plated and we put a mousse or frosting under anything tall or top heavy — to stick it to the plate. And the staff love selling these, they’re so dramatic.”

Indeed they are.

Tarci's pine cone dessert
Tarci’s pine cone dessert

“City Juice” is a colloquial term for a glass of tap water served at a diner.

John Malik is a culinary adviser and broker with National Restaurant Properties. He can be reached at chefjohnmalik@gmail.com.

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