Dirt Candy's new home or "big" Candy — as Amanda Cohen has been calling it — is a calm respite along the busy Bowery, with enough space that diners no longer need to sit atop one another, as was custom at the original location. In the wide Bowery space Cohen has two bars, one that looks into the kitchen and another tended by a bartender. The restaurant's design is simple, with polished concrete floors and white brick that has been turned into a mural by street artist Noah McDonough. A bright red banquette lining one wall offers a single cheery pop of color.
Cohen's strictly vegetarian menu offers dishes that focus on particular veggies, like carrots pulled, pickled, and jerked, and placed atop carrot waffles. Vegetables also find their way into surprising places like a chocolate onion tart and a tiny terra cotta flower pot blooming with vegetable colored brioche that's presented to each table. The wine menu is also bigger now that there's more room.
