When Dallas diners were slow to embrace the modern spin on Southeast Asian food at Malai Kitchen, the owners decided to school them. “We started giving every table sticky rice served on a banana leaf with an eggplant dip,” says co-owner Yasmin Wages. The complimentary bite gave servers a chance to explain a little about the cuisine. “We noticed a dramatic decrease in the number of dishes we had to ‘buy’ for people,” Wages says. Traffic picked up, she adds, and sales have risen 61 percent since introducing the sample.
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