Curry In Luxury

Sub par Indian food like that historically sold in the bastion of cheap spots in Curry Hill is infamous for inflicting its consumers with gut-churning regret. But according to Guarav Anand, who recently opened two spots on Lexington Avenue smack in the middle of the neighborhood, additional hazards lurked in the restaurants’ outdated interiors.

“There was red, there was orange, there were like 16 different colors,” Anand says of the tacky decor common in the area. “It gave me a headache.”

Not so at Bhatti Indian Grill. The modern, airy spot Anand opened last July boasts streamlined banquets along its exposed brick walls, chic round pendant lamps and a palette of soothing neutrals.

“The modern décor matches our modern menu,” he explains. “Both are light, clean and contemporary.”

This could be the driving motto behind Curry Hill’s recent revamp, which has seen shoddy take-out shops, taxi driver hangouts and fusty white-tablecloth joints replaced by new, modern establishments. At the epicenter of the neighborhood’s facelift is the block of Lexington Avenue between East 27th and East 28th streets, where no fewer than six upscale Indian restaurants have opened since late 2008.

Chef-owner Shiva Natarajan, whose restaurants Dhaba and Bhojan are two of the block’s pioneers, thinks it was only a matter of time before the area underwent a much-needed makeover.

“I started looking at this area 10 years back,” claims Natarajan, whose other Manhattan restaurants include the Midtown mainstay Chola. “I wanted to help make this block a foodie destination for Indian restaurants.”

But it wasn’t until the bad economy forced out shabby establishments that experienced restaurateurs like Natarajan moved in—taking advantage of the area’s relatively low rents and bringing a fresh aesthetic with them.

“I wanted to create a kind of stylish, hip, casual place,” Natarajan says of Dhaba, which opened in the fall of 2008. To that end, he invested just as much effort in the restaurant’s interior design as he put in to its Northern Indian menu: with the help of decorator Thida Thong Thai, he created a modish, vibrant space (think bold-striped walls and Edison-style light fixtures) that bears no resemblance to the tacky, bamboo-laden decorations of many of the city’s older Asian eateries.

“Of course, the décor helps pull in the customers,” explains Natarajan. “But it’s our affordable, simple cooking that keep them returning.”

And return they have: Dhaba has attracted consistently solid reviews and a steady crowd since its debut. And such a coup, especially on a block formerly dominated by ho-hum eateries, did not go unnoticed.

“I cannot praise myself on it,” Natarajan explains carefully, “but after the success of Dhaba, I could see the whole block changing. All the restaurants saw [Dhaba’s success], and everyone started spending money on the décor. That’s all I can say.”

Though other trend-conscious Curry Hill eateries have popped in the last five years—including the minimalist Copper Chimney, and white-and-lime-green themed Tiffin Wallah—Natarajan’s claims aren’t completely off. In the year and half after Dhaba’s successful debut, the block hosted the openings of Anand’s Bhatti Indian Grill, his small-but-chic Kathi Roll café, and three other upscale Indian restaurants including Bhojan, a spiffy vegetarian joint from Natarajan himself.

Given the restaurants’ close proximity, it is no surprise that a sort of “Keeping up with the Joneses” competition developed between the new proprietors when it came to revamping the interiors. (This is especially true of a dining area that relies more on foot traffic than on reservations.) What is surprising, however, is the fact that nearly all of the restaurants settled on a strikingly similar minimalist design scheme. With some exceptions—including the kadais, or Indian woks, hung on the ceiling at Bhojan—it looks like the owners took a joint field trip to IKEA, snapping up identical minimalist light fixtures, bold-colored throw pillows and trendy accoutrements like thick pillar candles. ------ [SIDEBAR: Five new Indian restaurants along one Curry Hill block]------

Even if the resulting interiors are likely a far cry from the “modern five-star restaurants of Delhi,” after which Anand says Bhatti is modeled, they have just enough contemporary style to stand out in the neighborhood. This is Murray Hill after all, the notoriously unfashionable home to recent grads and generic sports bars.

In both the décor and the new menus, there seems to be a growing awareness of the neighborhood’s yuppie demographic (or, as Natarajan classifies the population, “the young Wall Street and yoga crowds”). Each restaurant boasts lighter fare than traditional Indian cuisine normally offers, and many of the chefs were careful to dispel the idea of Indian food as the sort of diet-blasting fare one inevitably regrets: at Bhojan, there is the Ashram thalis ($16), a platter of light and kosher vegetarian dishes; at Tamba, the new restaurant opened by husband-andwife team Daljeet and Sikender Malik, there are steamed vegetables, and a simple, if unexciting, chicken-and-spinach dish called Tamba-murg Delight ($16.95).

Tamba’s lengthy fusion menu might feature some far better dishes, but for the Maliks, who ran Malika Restaurant in Midtown East before high rents forced them to consider this more affordable neighborhood, their greatest pride is Tamba’s new upscale décor. They spent seven months turning the formerly drab room into a pleasant oasis complete with copper lights and an inlaid waterfall.

Explains Mr. Malik with a shrug of his shoulders, “If the lady’s not nicely made up, they will pick another.”