AFTER REBRANDING FROM Dig Inn to just Dig, the fast-casual brand is one-upping its salad competitors with its first-ever upscale restaurant. Yet upon entering, you’d never suspect its corporate origins: Helmed by chef Suzanne Cupps (formerly of the Whitney’s Untitled café), it has a far more soothing feel than the lunch-hour rush at Dig.
Many of the vegetables are sourced from the same farms as ingredients found at the salad spot, only at a higher price point.
The best offering is charred cauliflower ($17) with Concord grape jam and sunflower butter: The concept initially seems like a kid’s wacky concoction but reveals itself to be an inspired homage to PB&J. Such fare is precisely where Cupps demonstrates her prowess for cooking in a monastic style that has a touch of the unexpected.
We also appreciated the hunks of marinated beets ($14) beside funky, unctuous black lentils topped with fried shallots. The carrots ($17) are another colorful, shareable plate: Grilled on an open-fire hearth and served with a sweet hot-honey ricotta, the root vegetable stands on its own.
It’s unsurprising that the menu’s least appealing item is the porchetta ($26), an entrée that needed more acidity from the pickled fennel to balance out the overpowering (and almost nauseating) fattiness.
By contrast, the kitchen excels at feeding our city’s revived lasagna kick. Cupps’s homey version ($29) abstains from red sauce; instead, the recipe is composed of tiers of luxurious Jasper Hill Farm cheeses and slathered with cauliflower béchamel sauce.
Restaurants often attempt to attract customers with barbaric portions of meat, but Cupps defiantly proves that veggies can be anything but a sad desk lunch.
