Food from India’s lesser locally represented regions will be front and center at a new Emeryville restaurant from the owners of S.F. modern Indian restaurant Rooh.
Pippal will bring the clay pot dishes of Bihar and the coastal cuisine of Goa, among other regions, to a more laid back setting than its older sibling restaurant, which is recognized by the Michelin guide. Owners Anu and Vikram Bhambri take the name and inspiration from the revered, canopy-like fig trees native to India, often pictured with people eating together in their shade.
“People usually come together to eat and chit chat, and that is what we want to create here,” Vikram Bhambri said.
The 2,700-square-foot restaurant, located in Emeryville’s Bay Street development, will seat 70 guests indoors and offer more outdoor seating with large tables and a standing bar area overlooking the bay. The setting, along with a variety of shareable dishes, is meant to foster a convivial feel among guests. The working menu includes a cabbage dish and a special clay pot meat dish, both traditional to Bihar. Dishes from Goa, influenced by the region’s Portuguese colonization, will also be prominently featured.
The bar plans to include eight to 12 beer selections in bottle and on tap, such as Indian favorites like Kingfisher, along with some of the country’s more popular spirits like Dharma Dry Gin and John Paul Whisky.
Construction is set to begin soon, and the restaurant has a planned early summer 2023 opening.
Rooh opened in San Francisco in 2017 to a positive review from Chronicle critic Michael Bauer, landing on his list of the city’s top 100 restaurants. More recently, it made critic Soliel Ho’s list of the region’s top Southeast Asian restaurants, where Ho praised its “distinctly soigné vision of what Indian food could be in this country.” Owners have expanded with Rooh locations in Palo Alto as well as Columbus, Ohio and even New Delhi, India.
“We’re really excited to bring these regional cuisines to the Bay Area and expose some of these lesser known dishes that are just as amazing as what people in the U.S. are used to,” Vikram Bhambri said.
Mario Cortez (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected]