Sonia Ahmed photo
Stevenson holding a Dubai chocolate strawberry cup in front of her truck Friday afternoon.
After working as a nurse and then as a panini cart vendor, Breanna Stevenson has started a new food business — selling chocolate-pistachio desserts on Sachem Street.
Stevenson’s new food cart, which opened in June, is called Dubai Desserts. It’s located at 73 Sachem St. and is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dubai Desserts is near a host of other food carts by Yale’s hockey stadium, including fellow newly opened business Gee’s Spot hot dog cart, but it’s the only dessert vendor in the area.
Dubai chocolate — which went viral on social media in 2023 after TikTok creator Maria Vehera posted a video of herself eating it — is a chocolate bar filled with pistachio butter and knafeh, which is shredded phyllo pastry dough.
Stevenson sells homemade chocolate bars, as well as strawberry cups with pistachio butter and knafeh. She has also recently added Dubai chocolate-themed crepes and slushies to her menu, although the strawberries remain a fan favorite.
“People walk up to me and they already know what they want,” she said during a recent interview in regards to the popularity of the dessert.
Customers can get her strawberry dessert cups for $14 each, and can choose between hazelnut Nutella, milk chocolate, and white chocolate. They can choose to mix the chocolates or have no chocolate at all, and the latter would be at a reduced cost of $11.
Stevenson said she was inspired to start the cart after she visited a restaurant that had Dubai chocolate pistachio cups in New York, and quickly got addicted. She added that she was traveling far to visit the cart every weekend, and soon realized she was spending more money on traveling than the $35 cup itself.
“I was like, ‘What is this stuff?’ And sure enough, I tried it and I was driving there probably every weekend just so I could get the cup,” she said about her initial reaction to trying the dessert.
After doing some research, Stevenson saw a lack of Dubai chocolate-themed desserts in Connecticut, and decided to start her own cart here.
Prior to selling dessert, Stevenson graduated from UConn with a nursing degree and was pursuing a career in that field. The pandemic, however, “ruined the love of the nursing field” for Stevenson. A couple years later, Stevenson’s mother passed, and she decided to pursue another career path.
Stevenson then began a Turkish panini cart in New Jersey. She ordered that cart from Amazon.
“My mom taught me everything I know,” Stevenson remarked about cooking. About starting the panini business, she said, “I have no regrets at all.”
Stevenson said she sold different sandwiches outside of a pizza parlor for a year before moving back to New Haven, where she’s from, to start her chocolate truck.
Karla Aran, a first-time customer who works in the mental health department at Yale Health Center, said on Friday she stopped by to visit because she’s developed a sweet tooth recently.
Aran ordered the Dubai Desserts strawberry cup, which she enjoyed. Aran liked the contrast of the nutty pistachio butter with the sweet milk chocolate, stating that the dessert was “sweet but savory.”
Dubai Desserts can be contacted via phone at 475 – 341-6128, or by messaging Dubai.Dessertsllc on Instagram.
Fresh bananas being sliced at Dubai Desserts.
The back of the Dubai Desserts truck, where “Turkish Panini” is still faintly visible in the background.
Karla Aran, a first time customer, enjoying her Dubai chocolate strawberry cup.