Khaki, San Ramon: A Michelin-Starred Chef Plants a Pan-India Flag in an East Bay Mall Thursday

One SF/Bay Area opening a day, chosen and checked. Today: San Ramon's turn, as the chef who took Chicago's Indienne to a Michelin star teams with Curry Up Now's founder to debut a pan-India "bar and canteen" at City Center Bishop Ranch on Thursday, with a menu that runs from a Bihari clay-pot kid goat to a Kerala banana-leaf branzino and a name that reclaims a colonial word.

Akash Kapoor built Curry Up Now into a fast-casual mini-empire of deconstructed Indian burritos. The Curry Up Now outpost at San Ramon's City Center Bishop Ranch "did decent, but not the numbers he wanted," he told Eater SF, and COVID emptied the office crowd around it. So he tore the format down and called the Sarkar brothers.

Sujan and Pujan Sarkar are the team behind Tiya, the Marina District's Michelin-recognized New Indian room, and Sujan is the chef who took Chicago's Indienne to a Michelin star and a James Beard Award nomination. With Kapoor they built Khaki, an "Indian bar and canteen" that treats a Bishop Ranch mall storefront as a stage for the regional Indian cooking most Bay Area kitchens don't attempt. The menu is built to survey all of India, rotating seasonally, and the name reclaims "khaki," the Urdu word for soil and the color the British took from India and put on their footmen.

The dishes read like a map. A Lamb Shank Purdah Biryani ($46, for two) braises the shank over aged basmati and seals the whole pot under a wheat-dough lid, served with raita and a bone-broth salan, the showpiece reviewers single out. Champaran Handi Mutton ($34) slow-cooks bone-in kid goat in a sealed clay pot with mustard oil, a rustic Bihari one-pot tied to Kapoor's childhood. Meen Pollichathu ($40, for two) wraps a whole butterflied branzino in banana leaf with coconut, kokum, and tomato masala, Kerala coastal style, with coconut rice. Mangalorean Beef Sukka ($28), black pepper and curry leaves over dry-roasted beef, comes from Pujan's travels through coastal Karnataka. Starters reach for a Kolkata jackfruit cutlet ($18), a childhood favorite of the brothers, and a passion-fruit pani puri ($14).

The room leans into India's post-colonial 1960s and '70s, bright and zany, with three kinds of hand-drawn wallpaper by Curry Fwd, the firm that built out Tiya, and a 14-seat bar running what the team calls the only full Indian cocktail program in the Tri-Valley: a truffle-and-goat-cheese Negroni that arrives with a cracker, a panch-phoron grapefruit-tequila paloma, and a drink built on clarified vanilla ice cream, basil, yuzu, and elderflower.

Khaki debuts for dinner Thursday, July 31, at 6000 Bollinger Canyon Road (City Center Bishop Ranch, Level 2, across from Ramen Hiroshi), San Ramon. Lunch follows; reservations are live at wearekhaki.com. Eater SF first flagged this partnership a year ago, and the date has finally held.

Also opening

Souley Vegan, Oakland (101 Broadway, Jack London Square): founder Tamearra Dyson throws a free "rebirth" party tonight, Sat Jul 25, 5 to 9 p.m., after a three-year hiatus, with Louisiana Creole vegan soul food and a new retail marketplace of house-made vegan meats and cheeses. (SF Bay View)
Gregory's Gourmet Desserts, San Ramon (2410 San Ramon Valley Blvd): the Uptown Oakland bakery Gregory Williams opened in 1999 expands east with pies, cheesecakes, and banana pudding; soft-opened Jul 21. (East Bay Nosh)
Berkeley Bagels, Berkeley (1941 University Ave): the 50-year-old Westbrae bagel shop opens its first second location Aug 17, same New York-style recipe. (East Bay Nosh)
The Mellow, San Francisco (1401 Haight St, Upper Haight): the Haight-and-Masonic plant shop, cafe, and barbershop adds a ticketed upstairs jazz room with a tapas and cocktail menu in early August. (SF Standard)
Florecita Panaderia, San Francisco (3349 24th St, Mission): the Bryant Street "Bakery Row" Mexican bakery, known for eggless conchas, takes over the just-vacated Shuggie's corner Sep 12 and adds a coffee program. (Eater SF)

Notable closing: Wood Tavern, Oakland (College Avenue, Rockridge), the 20-year neighborhood anchor, will serve its final dinner on New Year's Eve; owners Rebekah and Rich Wood will focus on next-door Southie and Piedmont Avenue's The Wolf. (SFist)