After being closed for five weeks of renovations, Dynamic Dish quietly reopened last weekend. Lord, did I miss how energized I feel after eating David Sweeney’s clean, market-driven cooking. Sweeney did much of the renovations himself, and the look isn’t radically different: The little booth where servers tabulated checks became a second restroom, and the bar looks swankier and has more seating—as befitting the alcoholic libations you’ll soon be able to sip there. Sweeney expects his liquor license to come through at the beginning of August.
When the licensing does happen, the restaurant’s menu will become less mercurial than it has been. Sweeney says the permanent dishes will include a veggie burger and the flatbreads that became staples during pizza night on Saturdays (he’ll slowly phase out that weekly feature), but he’ll still offer a couple of daily changing specials as well. Meanwhile, the menu, posted on a side wall rather than over the shiny new bar, continues its daily evolution.
I adore Sweeney’s distinct sense of composition. If someone lined up twenty salads from twenty different chefs, I swear it would take me less than a minute to pick his out. My first lunch back started with a classic—piquant arugula with Georgia blueberries, avocado, and almonds:
Then I went for both of the vegetable specials, both spectacular: roasted potatoes (crunchy and so right with the weekly Saturday brunch special) glossed with pumpkin seed oil and a flurry of herbs…
…and field peas over quinoa with feta, diced peppers, onion and parsley.
Folks love the cookies at Dynamic Dish, but I’m holding out for Sweeney to start offering one seasonal fruit dessert daily (I can envision him making a killer cherry clafouti). I did finish my meal with a fortifying espresso, made by the restaurant’s fancy new machine filled with beans from Batdorf and Bronson.
Go check out the tweaked space and let me know what you think.
