One of NYC's Most Influential Vegetarian Restaurant Pivots to Tasting Menus

Chef Amanda Cohen is turning her LES vegetarian destination Dirt Candy into a tasting menu-only restaurant for dinner.

The restaurant was one of the first ambitious restaurants in the city to eschew meat when it opened nine years ago in the East Village. Since then, she moved it to a larger space at 86 Allen Street. Cohen wrote in a statement that, after all this time, she has decided to nix a la carte dining in hopes of being able to experiment more with food:

This goes against New York City's dining trends right now, but I have a great dialogue with my customers and they're ready for the next vegetable frontier. Getting rid of the a la carte menu provides me with an opportunity to take more risks, to try more experiments, and to kick off an even cooler, crazier, all new vegetable party.

Diners will now have two options at dinner: “The Vegetable Patch,” a $57 five-course meal that features Dirt Candy hits like broccoli dogs, and the more ambitious “The Vegetable Garden,” an $83 meal with rotating vegetable dishes. Options here include an eggplant foster, which will be flambéed by the table and accompanied by basil creme anglaise, eggplant thumbprint cookies, and lemon ice cream. Both prices include tip.

People looking to order popular dishes like the Korean fried broccoli can still do so by going to Dirt Candy for brunch or by sitting at the bar, which will continue to offer an a la carte menu.

Despite the changes, Dirt Candy will remain a restaurant that does not serve meat. The restaurant will close after Thursday, August 31st to make the change, and it will reopen on Tuesday, September 5th with the new menu.