Farm-to-table Indian restaurant coming to Lewes
Taylor GoebelIt won't center on fat-laden butter chicken, its thick, reddish gravy a buffet necessity. Nor will it make chili peppers the tear-inducing star of Lewes' upcoming Indian restaurant.
No, Masala Hospitality Group's approach is as much about to-the-bone simplicity as it is bringing another part of the world to Lewes, a notoriously "big, food-loving community," said Dr. Mark Boytim, one of the new group's many investors.
"It should have happened 20 years ago," Dr. Vinay Hosmane, an investor, said of the yet-to-be-named restaurant. "When I was growing up in Lewes, people were always curious about, 'You’re Indian, where are you from, what’s it like?' "
Bringing South Asian cuisine to Lewes was a culmination, Hosmane said, of being asked over and over, "Where can we get Indian food?"
At some point in the near (or not near enough) future, folks visiting the vibrant, relaxed beach town will find Indian fusion at the purple-blotched Victorian on Savannah Road (the investors are hoping to give it a muted-blue facelift, restoring its original 1899 charm).
It will be the second Indian restaurant in Sussex County, after Indigo opened in Rehoboth Beach last year.
Background:Indigo in Rehoboth provides rare Indian flavors on Delmarva
"I think having this restaurant here for me, that’s part of what we wanted to showcase," Hosmane said. "Indian culture and Indian heritage through the food you have with a guest-is-God experience."
Hailing from a background of Caribbean, Indian and various other Asian styles of cooking, executive chef Gyanendra "GG" Gupta (or just Chef, as the investors call him), plans to give his guests an education in his food and an experience in hospitality.
Hospitality appeared to Gupta during his childhood, when he saw his mother preparing enough food for two, three, even four extra people.
"Chef always reminds us that in India, guest is God," Hosmane said. "God could appear anywhere — in Mark, in you, or it could show up here."
He looked around the drafty bare space, where he sat with Boytim and Gupta at a foldout table covered in rough blueprints of the restaurant's seating layout. Elephant figurines sat on a wooden hearth nearby.
"So when someone shows up at the door, you may or may not know them, but you treat them like God," Hosmane said. "You never know when the guests are going to come. No one should go with an empty stomach from your home."
The investors' dream could hold up to 100 seats including 20 on the porch — prime real estate for people-watching just off Second Street. Expect plenty of food and libation-pairing (not just wine or even craft beer), "Indian food is unique because you can pair it with specialty cocktails," Hosmane said.
The menu is not set in stone, nor will it ever be, says Gupta: "You can't keep a menu for too long, or people will get bored of it."
Chef will rely on local meat and produce, visits with local fishermen and trips to nearby markets, to learn about what farm-to-table looks like in Sussex County throughout the year.
He'll combine that with what he and Hosmane call the medicinal benefits of Indian spices — cardamom to reduce blood pressure, cumin to help boost metabolism, turmeric for joint pain and so forth.
Gupta wishes to educate people on each element they are tasting, where a particular dish came from and how it evolved to what is plated in front of them. He wants his guests to use their nose and eyes and mind — not just mouth — to consume.
It is easy for Gupta, with over 25 years experience throughout India and the Caribbean, to improvise his dishes.
Fusion elates him, and talking about any food "opens a Pandora's box," he said.
He could go on about Indo-Caribbean, Indo-Chinese — even Indo-Italian: Take ravioli, the Italian version of a dumpling, and toss it with a simple sauce of garlic-butter, cilantro, Madras curry powder and a hint of turmeric.
Nothing to overpower, just enough to "keep it exciting and keep people coming," Gupta said.
"India is a very diverse place," said Hosmane, who met Gupta 20 years ago while at med school. "You’ll see the fusion, but you’ll also see different cuisines of India."
Indeed, India has 22 official languages (note: official), a given for the breadth of dishes found throughout the country.
"A lot of people think Indian food is spicy," Gupta said in a tone defining that as misconception. "We are talking about flavors."
Gupta's intent is to learn what his guests want while introducing their taste buds to new sensations.
Are you vegetarian or non-vegetarian? What kind of meat do you like? What kind of flavors do you like? Spicy? With coconut? Does cilantro taste like soap to you or is it the best herb known to man?
"And then the dishes evolve," Gupta said, adding that guests can call ahead with food preferences, or choose from the menu. He doesn't mind, truly, so long as the food is left in its simplest form and not smothered out of its essence.
When Gupta was growing up in India, his mother helped him with spelling and grammar while she cooked, a sort of two-fold education. He'd sit in the kitchen, writing every word 10 times, and she'd check for mistakes amid wafts of cardamom, cumin, cinnamon and garlic.
The kitchen of Gupta's childhood was where he got curious, where he began asking his mother about ingredients and technique. And his mother was the one who revealed food to him as a communication of love and affection.
"Food is not just food," Gupta said. "It's a way to enjoy life."