Amanda Cohen Will Blanket Allen Street With Vegetables Starting Tomorrow Night

The crowned queen of New York's vegetable scene Amanda Cohen is poised to make her return tomorrow night when Dirt Candy 2.0, aka Big Candy, opens along Allen Street. The new space has an open kitchen with 12 seats along a counter peering into it, a floral mural on the wall by graffiti artist Noah McDonough, and a walk-in fridge (a bigger change for Cohen than it might sound).

All of the dishes are centered around a specific vegetable like kale which comes in matzo ball soup form with okra and a poached egg, or carrot which is pulled, pickled, and jerked, and served with a peanut mole sauce and carrot waffles. There are also jalapeño hush puppies with maple butter and a large-format cabbage hot pot. The veggies also find their way into dessert. There's carrot meringue pie and celery cheesecake roll.

Cohen will also be instituting her much buzzed about service charge. At the end of the menu she explains:

We pay our employees a fair wage, and they share in Dirt Candy’s profits, so no tipping, please. A 20% administrative fee is added to every bill to offset our costs. It is not a tip and none of it is distributed to the employees who serve you.

The restaurant's not up on OpenTable just yet, but Cohen says the team will start taking reservations tomorrow at 9 a.m.

  Dinner Menu

  Dessert Menu

  Cocktail Menu