Below. Chef Vij having a bit of fun showing off his food tossing skills in the kitchen of his new restaurant, My Shanti.
“My dream was always to do modern but homestyle Indian food with decent wines, something that Vancouver at that time had never experienced before. No Indian buffets for me. By 1994 I was 30 and had saved $10,000 to get a place of my own. When my parents immigrated to Canada, my baba—who had since warmed up to the idea that he had a chef for a son—surprised me with another $23,000 and signed the lease on a place I found on West Broadway called Café Arabia. It was a disaster inside but all I could afford. I couldn’t even buy a new sign. But every time a customer would come in looking for falafel I’d say ‘you must try my Indian samosas instead—they are fantastic!’ Slowly, slowly I changed the menu to my idea of home-style Indian cuisine until people started lining up outside!” “Every day my mother would prepare the lamb curry at their home in Richmond [then] get on the bus with a huge pot between her legs. What a fantastic aroma filled the air. She was my best publicity,” laughs Vij. One of Vij’s original customers at Café Arabia, was Marc Bricault of Bricault Design, Vancouver. Having travelled to India himself and fallen under her exotic spell, it was not surprising that Bricault would become the designer of choice for Vikram’s evolving restaurant empire. Like a biblical tale, Café Arabia soon begat the iconic upscale Vij’s restaurant that
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opened in Vancouver’s South Granville area 20 years ago; its more casual sister and mecca of frozen gourmet curries, Rangoli, next door; and their Vancouver residence. Meeru’s restaurant, Shanik—named after one of their daughters—opened in 2012 in Seattle, Washington and was designed by architect Joe Herrin. Bricault’s shimmering My Shanti marquee, composed of thousands of silver paillettes that took four months to install on individual hooks, is part Vegas part Bollywood—certainly it is a reflection of Vij’s exuberant personality. Inside, vibrant turquoise, purple and burgundy embroidered sari skirts cleverly encircle pendant lighting and sway seductively in the air.