A boom for modern Indian restaurants in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood

For the past two decades, Fremont has left its laid-back, artistic reputation behind as it attracted software companies looking to settle in Seattle. As Google, Getty, Tableau, and Adobe moved in, expanded, and updated, neighborhood conveniences followed – including a recent influx of modern Indian restaurants.

Until well into last year, the main source of Indian food in the neighborhood was Qazi’s Curry House, which serves the type of buffet lunch that has long been standard in Indian restaurants in America, as well as some South Indian specialties. In March, when it was remodeled and reopened as Rasai, it merely joined the growing trend of modern Indian restaurants in the neighborhood.

Rasai uses Indian cuisine as a starting point to explore new techniques and incorporate local ingredients as well as ideas from around the world. He puts jackfruit in Chinese bao, cooks tender halibut in the tandoor and serves his lamb chop with parsnip foam.

In November, Preeti Agarwal switched her Fremont restaurant, Pomerol, from French food with an occasional Indian accent to Meesha 127, which took its cue from their pop-ups serving creative interpretations of Indian cuisine. Across Aurora, South Lake Union Café Lassi & Spice opened a second location around the New Year, serving more traditional dishes than the other two, but in a thoroughly modern setting.

In one of Tableau’s buildings, Lassi & Spice serves a purely vegetarian menu with street foods like samosa chaat and vada pav that come very close to the classics, as well as Indian and American-style sweets and pastries. The drinks menu offers more freedom and offers a grapefruit lassi and oat milk masala chai.

Lassi & Spice

Lassi & Spice via Yelp

“We chose the neighborhood because it is a technology hub,” says owner Susannah Dhamdhere, citing “the strong base of South Asian professionals who are drawn to our Indian home-cooked menu.” But located on the border between Fremont and Wallingford, with a larger mix of housing than the SLU, they also had the option of being a neighborhood café. On weekends they offer Dosas and Uttapam for brunch and often offer regional specialty menus from Rajasthan, Maharashtra or Punjab.

“It was wonderful to have groups of friends at Gasworks Park to take away,” says Dhamdhere, but she also admits that opening in the middle of the pandemic winter was difficult. “We are eagerly awaiting the reopening of the offices.”

At Meesha 127, Agarwal gives this message back. “No school education can prepare you for a pandemic. We are fortunate to have survived this so far. “Two years ago, Agarwal bought the then five year old Pomerol with the intention of learning the ropes of running a restaurant by keeping it a French place and working in her favorite Indian flavors. But even then, she hoped to change that equation to Indian-inspired food with French flavors and make the restaurant her own by using fresh local seafood and the broths she ate in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi and at the cooking school there had learned. Meesha 127 fulfills this dream with a menu that includes a Desi cheese platter with tomato and chilli jam, Benarasi scallops with pickled celeriac and microgreens, and an apple brioche bread pudding seasoned with Garam Masala.

Naan with Butter Chicken Masala at Meesha 127

Ankita G. via Yelp

Making the changes was difficult, but she says, “We got a bit of a hall pass with guests” because they realized they were trying to do something new and how hard it was. One of her biggest challenges was the location, more than the food: “I was really hoping rents would adjust to reflect a pandemic,” she says.

But little seems to be able to curb the Seattle real estate boom, and Fremont’s appeal overcomes even the problems of a pandemic. “We picked Fremont for its trendy and hip vibe,” Rasai wrote in an email, declining to credit anyone.

The dark wooden tables contrast with the golden fittings in the elegant room, while dishes such as a lively beet rosette in an orange tomato sauce with green curry leaves transfer the same aesthetic to the plate. Hamachi tartare with fenugreek brioche, paneer and cactus buns and pomegranate raita add color and global influence to Indian flavors. “We use the ideology of the spices and flavors of age and use advanced scientific techniques of gastronomy and finesse in coating to give this city food that people have never seen before,” says the restaurant.

With a chef from two critically acclaimed modern Indian restaurants in San Francisco, Rasai plans to make Fremont a flagship before finally attempting to expand nationwide. This shows that all three of Fremont’s new Indian spots share an optimistic view of the Center of the Universe.

For Rasai it is the hopeful start into a great future. At Meesha 127, Agarwal is hoping another round of PPP and loyal customers will see them through. “I think there is always a silver lining,” she says, “and that good things are already happening.” Dhamdhere says with a similarly sunny demeanor, they knew opening the second ship would not be easy during the pandemic winter: “But there would be nothing but opportunity ahead of us.”