GREAT FOOD — BUT TURN DOWN THE VOLUME BY JEREMY WAYNE
FOOD & SPIRITS
Allow me to get something off my chest. I have not, nor have ever been, a member of the noisy restaurants party. Not that I’m a party pooper, on the contrary. I like a loud, raucous wingding as much as the next raver — I just don’t think high-decibel rock or rap is an appropriate accompaniment to good food. Call me stuffy, call me old-fashioned — but don’t call me for a dinner date if earsplitting music is on the menu. Which brings me to this month’s restaurant — Little Drunken Chef in White Plains, the new opening from Bonnie Saran, the Westchester restaurateur with five “Little” restaurants to her name, including Little Drunken Chef and Kabab Station in Mount Kisco and Little Mumbai Market in Pleasantville. There are many nice surprises at the new restaurant — including long opening hours with a full menu served all day, heavy cloth napkins, a mezzanine with a chill area and bartenders who know their fizzes from their rickeys. But the biggest surprise of all — and contrary to the rule of inverse proportion, which states that the louder the music, the more desultory the food — is the discovery that with music this loud, the food should be so good. On a recent Saturday evening, with the sound approaching rock-concert levels, four of us snagged a table along the wall, where the banquette seating is so hard on the derrière that bringing your own pillows would be a smart idea. From the crowded menu (long and chaotic in its staccato Courier font), we started off with tapas of crispy calamari, fiery Padrón peppers and gambas al ajillo, beautifully sourced produce all, authentic flavors which had us right there on the Plaza Mayor in Madrid. Next we traveled east, for paneer rolls with green chutney, tacos of chicken vindaloo — a lovely soft taco with spicy Indian chicken; crisp tostados of pingingly fresh shrimp and avocado; Lasooni Gobi, cauliflower florets in a garlic chilli sauce; and a plate of halloumi fries, made vibrant with a sumac and tzatziki drizzle. If Little Drunken Chef plunders the world’s larder, leaving culinary solecisms in its wake, then it does so with a joyous insouciance that is hard to mind. I’m actually loving this food, and a few days later I’m back, for upscale pan-fried halibut, ahi tuna with crispy potatoes, channa masala (chickpeas and mango powder, which is one of the many gluten-free and vegan choices) and a glorious West Indian goat curry, heady with ginger and allspice, fried plantain as a welcome, sweet condiment. Yes, Saran’s food is plucky, a kaleidoscopic mix with a big dollop
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WAGMAG.COM
JULY 2019