Dining Out

Dig This

Digs Bistro Transitions From Speakeasy to Splurge-Worthy Destination

    According to various studies, Americans on average eat nearly 20 percent of their meals in their cars. Assuming most of that grub is fast food, you could say the meal and the venue are well matched. But that’s not my notion of ideal agreement between cuisine and surroundings; Dig’s Bistro is.
    Sinking a fork into a slightly pink, tender slice of duck breast at one of the dining room’s seven sturdy, uncovered painted-wood tables, being attended to by a server who knows just when to glide in and out of your presence, all with good mainstream jazz whispering in the background and low flames crackling in the corner rock fireplace—that’s perfect harmony to me. Digs is down with synchronization. We made our first visit in late December, only 12 weeks after the bistro opened. Already, the limited menu—five starters, four entrees and four desserts—and the efficient (but neither officious nor overly chummy) service were finely tuned to the breathe-easy, soft-focus atmosphere of the space last occupied by the relatively short-lived Olivia and, for decades before that, A La Carte. But you wouldn’t expect less from a trio of collaborators who had been honing their arts and crafts not only in such Bay Area culinary landmarks as Rivoli, Soizic, Quince and Lark Creek Inn but also literally in a living room.
    Manager Jesse Kupers and chefs Justin Sconce and Heidi DiPippo first established Digs Bistro as an underground restaurant in Kupers’ Lake Merritt neighborhood home. They served fixed-price dinners, often accompanied by live music. Forced by the city of Oakland to cease operations after an unrelated dispute with a neighbor escalated into tattling, the team bided its time until chef Nathan Peterson, reportedly for personal rather than business reasons, folded Olivia and handed over the location.
    Tucked into an unassuming building on Dwight Way at Sacramento Street, the intimate space has always been conducive to romantic dining. The booths that gave A La Carte much of its character are gone, but the main room—seating about 26, counting the rear alcove and the zinc bar with four stools—is still comfortably snug. (A slightly starker, semi-private side room seats up to 12.) The lighting, mostly from wall lamps, sconces and tabletop candles, softly accents the warm color scheme and the local artwork on the walls. Long drapes pulled back from wide-slat Venetian blinds on the narrow windows and cushy carpeting add to the homey feel and help dampen the sound of nearby conversations and the minimal clatter from the proximate bar and kitchen.
    All these trappings could add up to little more than an elegant rural-cottage ambiance. But Sconce and DiPippo fill the bistro’s large white plates and bowls with the kind of expertly fashioned and presented high-end comfort food that adds “special-occasion destination” to Digs’ profile as a cloistered neighborhood hideaway. If you’ve retained or crossed back over to carnivorous ways, and can handle the cholesterol, by all means begin a meal here with the charcuterie plate ($9/$15). On our first visit, my wife, Robin, and I could have made a dinner out of the excellent bread, a glass of modestly priced wine (including Kermit Lynch Côtes du Rhône, $7, from a list that offers about 10 wines by the glass, $6–$12, and two dozen by the bottle, $23–$215), and the large charcuterie plate, generously arrayed with Iowa prosciutto and three house-made delights—an exquisitely silken chicken liver mousse, smoky extra-thick bacon and a marvelous duck ham.
    In the service of research, however, we plunged into the hearty entrees: braised short ribs with mashed sweet potatoes and kale ($21) and Dungeness crab–stuffed halibut accompanied by a ratatouille of fresh vegetables. We topped off the meal with a scrumptious apple tart (great pastry crust!) inventively paired with house-made cranberry ice cream, and the mainstay Digs black and tan sundae with butterscotch praline (all desserts $6).
    The menu changes every three weeks or so, and on a second visit in mid-January, the company of friends allowed us to explore further options, including a soothing vegetable and barley soup with nettle pesto ($6.50); a cloud-like sharp Parmesan soufflé bedded on “little gems” lettuces with walnuts and beet vinaigrette ($9.50); Happy Boy Farms mixed greens with sherry-shallot vinaigrette ($6.50); roasted halibut with fennel/potato gratin ($24); duck “two ways” (a leg confit and sliced breast) with winter bean ragout, braised red cabbage and cranberry gastrique ($23); and a rich, toothsome house-made cannelloni with mushrooms, smoked mozzarella and truffle fonduta ($18). While Robin revisited the sundae, the rest of us picked at an intense but surprisingly not over-the-top chocolate bread pudding.
    Except for overly fatty and timidly seasoned short ribs, the only missteps our palates detected cropped up in the sides—overcooked kale, bland ratatouille, blurred favors in the bean ragout and cabbage. Those minor flaws betrayed an occasionally rustic rather than refined touch with ingredients but certainly didn’t detract from the modestly innovative and graceful preparations that predominate. And the overall sympathetic vibe between the dishes and the setting will hearten anyone who is homesick for the restaurant’s subterranean origins and will make newcomers feel right at home in these inviting digs.

    DIGS BISTRO. New American. Serves dinner 5:30 p.m.–9 p.m. Sun.–Thu., 5:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat.1453 Dwight Way, Berkeley, (510) 548-2322, www.digsbistro.com. Credit cards accepted, wine and beer, reservations, wheelchair accessible, $$$.