[Pigging by Wilfrid: June 27, 2016]
I've been tardy getting around to writing about Tapestry, the new restaurant from Suvir Saran which opened in Greenwich Village about a month ago. I've been meaning to return, but life gets in the way.
But I did want to make some remarks, first and foremost that Tapestry is not an Indian restaurant.
But Tapestry is far from being Devi 2.0 (although Suvir will whisper about having a new Indian restaurant up his sleeve). Despite Suvir's hands-on involvement, as well as the partnership of Roni Mazumdar from the overtly Indian (and very good) Masala Wala, Tapestry is sui generis. Or, to put it another way, it's an American restaurant for an age when American no longer means white bread and apple pie. Anyone who turns up here hoping for papardums and chicken biryani will be disappointed. Open-minded diners can have a great time. (If it reminds me a little of one restaurant, it's Elettaria, an excellent Greenwich Village contender from Akhtar Nawab, which closed back in 2009).,
So congratulations Suvir--whom I might as well say at this point I've known for something like fifteen years or more, shocking though that seems. Our acquaintance has been mainly online, but we've schmoozed and chatted before; and I did quite well here to keep a low profile until my dinner was over. At which point I said "Hi," Suvir sat down with me, and a series of extra dishes flowed from the kitchen. "It's food Charlie and I make at the farm," he said, referring to his partner Charlie Burd and the American Masala Farm in upstate New York.
It's a busy, cozy, intimately lit spot--and sitting at a corner table, my discreet camera was never going to thrive. But you can check the restaurant's own photos on Instagram. Or enjoy my live action shots.
That's two takes on the rabbit terrine, which is a mandatory appetizer. As the Infatuation would say, this needs to be on your table. It's also something of a statement of intent: a classic, French terrine, studded with pistachios, served with "rabbit grazings"--refreshing slivers of vegetable and edible flowers--which only disappointed through their tendency to topple from the narrow dish on which the terrine (plenty for two, by the way, is served).
The Tapestry website, I admit, does talk about Indian spicing, and one point at which the meal recalls the best of Devi is when you gorge on spiced, roasted cauliflower. One of the Devi signature dishes was Manchurian cauliflower, an addictive Indian-Chinese sweet and sour fried dish. "These are roasted," Suvir pointed out, but the satisfaction is similar with the sweet-sour accent of tomato jam. Again, shareable.
Another dish which appeared in Devi's late incarnation, when the menu started to reflect Suvir's interest in American food, was the fried chicken. It's a popular choice here too, breast and leg of a very plump bird, crunchily coated, served with a spiced potato salad (aloo bharta) and peanut slaw.
You can find an alternative and less carnivorous path through the menu, ordering from an extensive range of vegetable dishes. The avocado and cabbage slaw might look like a pile of shredded leaves in a bowl, but the avocado gives it a remarkably bright creaminess. One of the themes in the cuisine here is pumping appealing meaty and fatty notes into pure vegetable dishes. Another example was the cauliflower papardelle, a distinctly earthy dish, sparked up by chile, garlic and sage. I did ask Suvir whether he was eating less meat in his diet, and he sighed as he answered, "No."
With Suvir's generosity piling on top of the meaty courses I'd ordered, I couldn't do much with dessert--certainly not the highly recommended sticky toffee pudding. But I did have some rabbit terrine to take home with me, and plate in daylight for lunch the next day. And even plated by me, it looks gorgeous.
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