Who We Are

Hi, I’m Cesar, and welcome to Desserts Before Dinner (DBD)

When I started DBD, I wanted to bring something new to the world of desserts. The goal was never to just follow trends or throw a bunch of M&M’s on a cookie and call it a day. Everything began with our six original cookies, recipes that took weeks of testing and tweaking to get right. Each one was made with the idea of creating something high-quality, delicious, and balanced, desserts that don’t just taste like sugar on sugar.

I’m Dominican, so dulce de leche has always been a favorite of mine. That’s what inspired our Dulce Pecan Chip Cookie, a rich, warm cookie with just a hint of caramel sweetness. I didn’t want to just drizzle or stuff it in there; I wanted the flavor to actually live in the dough. That made it trickier to develop since balancing the weight of the dulce with the flour took time, but that’s how I like to do things: slow, intentional, and with a lot of care.

That same approach led to our S’moreswich. I could have taken the easy route and thrown a few marshmallows on a chocolate chip cookie, but I wanted it to feel real, something nostalgic but elevated. So I made a graham cracker shortbread from scratch and even created our own marshmallows because the store-bought ones were too dry and didn’t look the way I envisioned. In the end, it became one of our most popular cookies, and honestly, that meant everything.

DBD has always been about passion and the genuine desire to create desserts that stand out in both quality and taste. Every single item is made by me, from scratch, right here in Brooklyn. My goal is to keep experimenting, keep improving, and keep finding new ways to make desserts that remind you why the sweet stuff should never come last.