Dig Inn has appointed Dylan Mendelsohn as Culinary Director and simultaneously rolled out an eight-item fall menu now available at all of the chain's more than 35 Northeast locations through year-end. The hire signals an investment in culinary talent at a moment when fast-casual operators are under pressure to differentiate on food quality as consumer spending on dining out remains selective.
The Hire
Dig Inn drew Mendelsohn from Life Alive Cafe, where he served as Director of Culinary, and before that from Eleven Madison Park — the fine-dining institution consistently ranked among the world's best restaurants. The pairing of fine-dining pedigree with fast-casual scale has become a recognizable playbook in the segment, with operators betting that credentialed chefs can elevate perceived value without commensurate price increases.
The Fall Menu
Mendelsohn's debut lineup leans into vegetable-forward, regional sourcing: Hudson Valley apples dressed in chai yogurt and served Waldorf-style, delicata squash with maple tahini, and Brussels sprouts charred to order with Mr. Bing Chili Crisp. Starchier options include Yukon mashed potatoes steamed and milled daily with garlic and parmesan, and an autumn farro with roasted butternut squash and citrus tahini. A lentil-and-chickpea salad with feta and a roasted red beet dish with quinoa round out the vegetable sides, while a Gotham Greens-based house salad anchors the lighter end of the menu. All eight dishes are prepared in-restaurant each day — a scratch-cook model that raises labor costs but supports premium positioning in a crowded fast-casual field.
The chain is also pushing into group and corporate occasions with two family meal formats: a Fall Family Meal built around herb chicken, and a Steak & Mash Family Meal with char-grilled steak. Both are offered as catering packages, extending Dig Inn's revenue opportunity beyond in-store traffic into the office-catering corridor — a channel that has recovered unevenly since the pandemic reshaped workplace dining patterns.
Operator Implications
"The produce changes before the weather does, and this menu is our way of following its lead," Mendelsohn said, describing the approach as scratch cooking "the way you'd want it done if you were cooking it for family." The framing targets a consumer cohort that reads ingredient provenance and preparation method as proxies for value — a positioning that operators from sweetgreen to Cava have leaned into aggressively over the past two years.
Orders can be placed in-restaurant, via the Dig Inn app, or at diginn.com for pickup and delivery, with purchases accumulating Dig Inn Rewards points. For the broader fast-casual sector, the appointment underscores how culinary talent acquisition has become a strategic lever — not just a marketing beat — as chains compete on menu credibility alongside throughput and unit economics.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
