Baked Alaska Is Back, and Here’s Where to Find It in DFW

Baked Alaska shouldn’t work. You put ice cream in a hot oven, or hold a torch to it, and it doesn’t melt. The trick is the meringue. All those beaten egg whites trap air, and air is a lousy conductor of heat, so the outside browns while the ice cream inside stays frozen solid on its cake base. It’s a little kitchen physics dressed up as a party.

The name goes back to New York’s Delmonico’s. The story is that the restaurant named the dessert to honor the United States buying Alaska from Russia in 1867, though Delmonico’s own early version went by a better name, Alaska, Florida, for the hot-and-cold trick at its center. Baked Alaska had its big run on mid-century dinner party menus and cruise ships, then mostly disappeared. Lately it’s back, and a handful of North Texas kitchens are doing it right.

Delilah, the Design District supper club at 1616 Hi Line Drive, builds its Baked Alaska on Nilla wafers and banana semifreddo with caramel, which makes it read like Southern banana pudding wearing a tuxedo. It’s the big finish in a room built for big finishes. Delilah is open Tuesday through Sunday from 5 p.m.

Over on Knox Street, Mister Charles also leans on banana with its Banana Semifreddo Baked Alaska, and it’s a fitting dessert for a dining room that took over the old Highland Park Soda Fountain space. The restaurant is at 3219 Knox St., Suite 170, and serves dinner nightly from 4:30 p.m.

If you want the classic, go to Truluck’s in Uptown. Its Baked Alaska stacks chocolate cake and an Oreo crust under vanilla-coffee ice cream, then crowns the whole thing in toasted meringue. It’s a steakhouse dessert in the best sense, built for birthdays and anniversaries. Truluck’s is at 2401 McKinney Ave., on the corner of Maple and McKinney.

Another classic sits inside Galleria Dallas. The Oceanaire Seafood Room at 13340 Dallas Parkway lists its Baked Alaska right alongside its oysters and fresh fish as a signature, and calls it everyone’s favorite. It’s the move after a plate of blackened Texas redfish or a dozen oysters, and it suits the room, an old-school seafood house built for celebrations. The easiest way in is through the Westin Hotel lobby, and the host will knock $5 off valet. The Oceanaire serves lunch and dinner Monday through Friday, and dinner only Saturday and Sunday from 4 p.m.

Up north, Trick Rider at the Omni PGA Frisco Resort serves a lighter, fruit-forward Baked Alaska with strawberry gelato, berry compote, meringue and black currant. It’s also marked gluten-friendly, which is rare for a dessert built on cake. Trick Rider is at 4341 PGA Parkway in Frisco and serves dinner Tuesday through Saturday from 5 p.m.

Wherever you go, save room and plan to share. Nobody at the table will turn down a spoon.