by FAITH BENNETT
Dig Foods’ Sean Sigmon has long been a part of the food community in Jacksonville. Now the seeds of his organic catering business have blossomed into a restaurant on East Bay Street. It is no surprise that Jacksonville has been so excited about the restaurant even before its grand opening.
As mentioned, Sigmon is well known for bringing heart and health to what he does. He once served as the head chef at Atlantic Beach’s Turtle Island (sadly, no longer in operation) as well as filled a position at the Thief in the Knight gallery space to host dinners. He also held periodic, multi-course brunches at Bold Bean. He’s routinely been involved with the CoRK arts district and Intution Ale Works, both catering events and doing fun things like hosting vegan pizza parties. Dig’s involvement with Staci Bushea and Jim Draper’s edible art installation, Artivores, was a unique thing for anyone to participate in. Even more recently, he and Lenore Chesnutt led a team from Dig catering for al fresco brunch on the marsh at Dutton Island for a benefit in partnership with DIG Local (unrelated), further proving their undying commitment to the local and organic community.
Dig has always stated as a company that they believe happiness and health are strongly tied to the way people eat, the environment they’re in, and what they eat. Dig strives to serve whole foods rather than processed, pushing local or organic produce. On top of all of this, all of the fare offered at Dig is vegan or vegetarian. Some examples of what can be found at Dig’s new space (though the menu will fluctuate) include kale salad, curried black eyed peas wrapped in house-made naan, chick pea pies and vegan gnocchi.
There is an unfortunate, negative stigma sometimes attached to vegan food that makes omnivores think that it will lack taste or not be satisfying enough. Hopefully the doubters will make it to this restaurant, so they can stop believing the myth about vegans only eating raw carrots and tofu. Dig has never failed to impress in the past, and it’s doubtful they ever will.
Dig Foods is located at 113 East Bay Street in the same building as Underbelly. They are open Monday through Friday from 11 am-3 pm.
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