Tag: Chai Pani

Meherwan Irani, founder of Chai Pani in Decatur and Asheville, is opening a food stall in Ponce City Market called Boti, the name for a marinated, grilled, and skewered chunk of meat. “With Chai Pani, we introduced Indian street food to America, but there are subcultures of it,” he explains. “At Chai Pani, it was about chaat—bright, crispy, multi-textured snacks like samosas or pakoras. Boti is about the street grill at night when the fires start blazing. It’s a style of kebab—lamb, beef, chicken, fish. It’s meat on a stick.”

Because it feels so hip and modern, it would be easy to assume that Meherwan and Molly Irani’s Indian restaurant in Decatur (an offshoot of their Asheville location) caters to Westerners. False.

As the saying goes, you win some, and you lose some. This year we saw famed mixologists leave their longtime outposts, award-winning chefs open new “it” spots, and the restaurant community band together to help one of their own. As we welcome in the new year, we pause to take a look back at what happened in 2013.

Taste of Atlanta is only a couple of weeks away. This year’s food fest, held October 25 through 27 at Tech Square, features samples from more than ninety local restaurants, four stages of cooking demonstrations, a barcraft competition, and a “Taste Revival” kickoff event hosted by Ron Eyester of Rosebud, the Family Dog, and Timone’s.

Even though Watershed moved to Buckhead more than a year ago, I doubt I’m the only one who had trouble picturing another restaurant in its original Decatur location.

The arrival of Decatur's Chai Pani, an Indian restaurant that originated in Asheville, seems to have spurred a citywide craving for Mumbai-style street food snacks. But for those unfamiliar with the specifics of this trend, we spoke with Chai Pani owner and chef Meherwan Irani. Below, he compares traditional Indian street food dishes to common American eats:

We reviewed 2012 a couple weeks back. What will 2013 bring? Here are the thirteen restaurants we're most anticipating:

Last year, Richard Blais got back in the kitchen with the Spence, Fifth Group opened a sustainable seafood spot (Lure), and the Optimist was named “Restaurant of the Year” by Esquire Magazine. Giovanni Di Palma drafted plans for a miniature Little Italy near Georgia Tech (see Bar Antico below), Shaun Doty got into the fast-casual chicken market with the opening of Bantam and Biddy, and numerous local chefs appeared on Chopped.