A non-desi former pastry chef has opened a restaurant in Greenwich Village which serves traditional dhaba food, lassi and paranthas (thanks, BridalBeer). The new place is called Lassi:
From delicate plate-dwarfing dosas at Hampton Chutney Co. and the N.Y. Dosa cart, to wraplike rolls at Roomali and the Kati Roll Co., to the colorful, crunchy chaat of Sukhadia’s Gokul, we’re undoubtedly having a Southeast Asian street-food moment…
I think they mean South Asian, but carry on:
Catchily named for the frothy yogurt drinks on offer in mango-flavored profusion all over town, Lassi is much more than an ethnic smoothie shop (though its premade featured beverages, in potent, refreshing flavors ranging from spice-flecked cardamom and vanilla to a complex and curdy lemon, can easily become an après-gym addiction).
… Lassi is bright and cheerful—like its owner, Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez, the former pastry chef of L’Impero and Veritas. A chance encounter with a Punjabi student in a pastry class she was teaching—and many stereotype-shattering home-cooked Indian meals— inspired Carlucci-Rodriguez to change culinary course. And even though she’s an unlikely Indian-restaurant owner, she’s a passionate one. Her food tastes unlike any other Indian in town—fresher, cleaner, but undiluted in its intricately spiced essence.
Fresher, lighter — is it California-style Indian food, a la California burritos?
The backbone of Lassi’s menu is its parathas, just one of the Atkins- be-damned Indian breads that’s begun to make fast-food inroads here. The dough itself is minimally stuffed with minced fillings like goat, daikon, or a particularly flavorful cauliflower, griddle-blistered and served folded in half with boondi raita, spiced yogurt studded with tiny chickpea dumplings. Chewy and dense, satisfyingly grease-slicked and impregnated with herbs and spices, the paratha is best eaten immediately, in its most supple, almost tender state, at one of Lassi’s four counter stools. Lassi and paratha may be the tiny shop’s raisons d’être… Desserts like pumpkin halwa, a creamy, grainy, evocatively flavored pudding studded with pistachios and yellow raisins, fuse her old life and her new one.
One reviewer missed the traditional overstuffed Punjabi paranthas:
The parathas were more dough than filling, not what a traditional home style place ought to do. Parathas are what brought me in, parathas are what really made me cringe.
Will Lassi go the same way as Bombay Talkie in appealing more to mainstream palates than desi ones?
Update: DBS doesn’t like the juice, eh?
I ordered a coffee lassi - small, in the interest of trying something new and staying mildly within budget, though the $3.50 price tag seemed a bit excessive. When it was delivered with a smile, I almost gagged: the diminutive beverage was all of 4 ounces tall, dwarfed in its sad plastic cup by the straw that rose awkwardly above it.Lassi, 28 Greenwich Ave./10th St., 212-675-2688; Tue-Sun 12-10Simultaneously, a white patron leaned conspiratorially towards the counter and stated earnestly “this is fantastic. This is my favorite Indian place in the city.” I restrained myself from laughing out loud, half-sipped my micro-drink and waited for my aloo paratha. The paratha, priced at $3.95, was quite doughy and unremarkable for the price…
… if you are downtown, and looking for a good lassi, take thee to the Himalayan Cafe, a slightly larger shoebox of a space off the corner of 1st St. and 1st Ave. The lassis, which come in traditional and one new flavor (banana), are great, $2.50, and come in a pint glass.
