That was followed by two small plates, the Mushroom and the Broccoli. Dirt Candy may be complex in the kitchen, but they phoned in the dish titles. The Mushroom was a dish primarily based around a truffle toast, upon which one would "layer as many different flavors as possible" according to our server. There are little balls of portobello mousse, sauteed pear, and dollops of cherry reduction. Mushrooms play a small role when one spells it all out, but actually, that flavor dominated the dish, which was fantastic. Every bite was both rich and smooth, both tart and umami. My only complaint was that the toast was sharp and kindasorta cut into my gum.

The Broccoli dish is the honest vegetarian's version of a hot dog. As I've said in the past, too often, vegetarian food tries to be meatless meat. Chick'n and facon and beefless beef stew. Too often, vegetarian food wants to try to convince vegetarians that they're still eating meat when in reality they're eating some sort of processed soy slop. But not this broccoli dog. Nuh uh. Dirt Candy grills and smokes broccoli stalks, puts them in little buns, layers it with a broccoli slaw and a mustard sauce and it is flat out good. There's a nice sweet tang in the sauce, which the plays well with the natural mild bitterness of broccoli, and there's a satisfying crunch when you bite down. "Maybe they could serve these at a baseball game?" said Sweet Pea. I don't think I'd go quite that far, but take my meat-eating word for it, this was good.