The New York City-based Dig concept has named Tracy Kim to the role of CEO as the fast-casual chain shifts into growth mode with a move into the suburbs.
Dig on Monday said Kim, who served previously as COO, will step into the CEO seat, replacing founder Adam Eskin, who will assume the role of executive chairman, focusing on growth and real estate expansion.
Tracy Kim/Photo courtesy of Dig.
“Tracy has done an incredible job since joining us in the fall of 2021,” said Eskin in a statement. “She is a brilliant, compassionate, high-integrity leader that knows what it takes to scale a business with a people-first approach. I’ve truly loved working with her over the last 18 months and look forward to supporting her in her new role. We feel lucky to have her at Dig.”
In addition, Dig is adding two new board members with years of experience growing brands: Andy Pforzheimer, who founded the Bartaco and Barcelona brands, as well as Mark Crumpacker, the former CMO of Chipotle Mexican Grill.
For the once-buzzy vegetable-forward concept, the moves signal a return to the growth momentum that was stopped in its tracks by the pandemic.
The chain had more than 30 units open in 2019 and double-digit sales growth, with more than $50 million in funding raised from investors that included Danny Meyer’s Enlightened Hospitality Investments. But Dig at the time was largely in urban locations—then primarily New York City, Boston and Philadelphia—that were left empty as city workers stayed home during the Covid years.
Post pandemic, it took time for the restaurants to reopen, and a handful were closed permanently, Kim said. “So now we’re trying to diversify our portfolio in a mindful, strategic way. The chain expects to reach its pre-pandemic unit count again by the end of this year.
On Monday, for example, Dig opened its first freestanding restaurant, a 3,000-square-foot unit with a 50-space parking lot in Stamford, Conn.
The interior of Dig's first freestanding restaurant in Stamford./Photo courtesy of Dig.
Stamford followed an opening in an outdoor mall in Bridgewater, N.J. last month. And coming next week is another unit in Washington, D.C., in the heart of Georgetown, a more residential urban location.
Those three are among six new restaurants to open this year, and another six to eight scheduled for next year, including locations in Bethesda, Md., as well as Virginia, and later Massachusetts, more in New York and North Carolina.
“We’re well underway in terms of that real estate pipeline and getting back to opening new restaurants,” Kim said.
While Dig was a hit for the commercial office worker in urban core neighborhoods, Kim believes the fresh, from-scratch bowl menu will also appeal to families and a much broader demographic found in suburban locations. At the Stamford opening, for example, Kim said she was pleased to see a range of guests, from younger working professionals to families with young kids and retirees out for lunch.
Unlike the urban units where Dig guests walk a line and “point and choose” their meals typically taken to go, Kim said Stamford is more of a hybrid-style service, where guests order at a register, which overlooks the open kitchen, and food is run to tables.
Those who want to dine in can eat off real ceramic bowls and plates, and drink from glassware. The menu also includes an expanded focaccia sandwich program not found at urban units (yet), as well as wine and beer, which adds to the dine-in experience.
Dig is also testing a new family-oriented dinner offering at a restaurant in Westchester County, New York (also available at Stamford and Bridgewater) called the Dig Dinner Box, designed to feed four with an assortment of proteins, sides and sauces, for $40.
“Given what we’ve seen with food industry pricing over the last 18 months, both in restaurants and grocery stores, we see the opportunity to feed a family at an incredible value, particularly given the quality of our food. It would literally cost you more to shop and cook it yourself,” said Kim in a statement.
Kim spent years in consumer product branding at General Mills and working in the tech scene for companies like Shutterstock and Aaptiv (a fitness app) before joining Dig.
There will be more to come for the brand as growth momentum returns and the brand evolution continues, she said.
“Our product and our service—it’s a very high-quality product—actually speaks to a lot of use cases, and certainly more use cases than what was typically the commercial office lunch,” she said. In Stamford, for example, many were commenting on what a great value the meals were for families. “It’s very refreshing to see the big expansion in demographics.”
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