After our cocktail at Tigre, we continued our birthday celebration at Amanda Cohen’s love affair with veggies at Dirt Candy, a few blocks away.

They offer only a tasting menu ($110) per person with an optional wine pairing ($55), which we also did. Our thank you for coming, served in a special tin containing seaweed caviar with crème fraîche, avocado and cucumber.

The meal continued through many courses including the mushroom one with mushroom croissant with portobello mushroom mousse pears, plums and micro-thyme with a mushroom cappuccino with the plate decorated with cherry, peach and ginger puree. Incredible dish from the puree dots to the soup.

We also liked Dirt Candy’s picked cauliflower topped with in-house made chili oil and shaved pecorino Romano cheese with diced scallions.

Our final savory course was another amazing use of vegetables. It was a hickory smoked butternut BBQ rib of squash cooked tempura style in a Kansas-City style BBQ sauce served over a delicata squash pommes puree, topped with toasted sesame seeds, chives and micro parsley.

Our final gift from the kitchen was a carrot pizza with purple carrots to represent pepperoni. 

After that, we had many dessert options.

Do come hungry when you dine at Dirt Candy, no-tipping establishment. The restaurant pays its staff a fair living wage plus benefits.

I highly recommend Dirt Candy, preferring it in the summer and fall for the amazing array of vegetables are available for their creations.

Dirt Candy
Lower East Side
86 Allen St,
New York, NY 10002
212) 228-7732
dirtcandynyc.com/