New dessert carts at New York City restaurants

When it comes to tableside service, the city’s restaurants have come a long way from pouring sauces and filleting fish. The prevalence of interactive chef’s counters and showy fine-dining restaurants, like Eleven Madison Park and Carbone, have ushered in glass cloches filled with smoke, tartares ground in front of diners and a return of the salad tossed tableside. And there’ll be no waving off this latest dining-room theatrics: A brigade of dessert-topped carts—once confined to dusty haute stalwarts and storied luxury liners—are making a comeback.