Openings, especially long-delayed ones, go through their own hype cycle with the restaurant doing its best to keep the wave cresting, rather than come crashing to shore.
In case of the long-in-the-making Slink & Bardot, its unique menu, much-loved location and passionate team, each contributed to keep the curious continually engaged much before it opened on May 15. The French restaurant and lounge is made up of four distinct rooms, which are inviting, cosy and yet in the case of the bar, appropriately moody. The vibe here is not stuffy, but instead veers towards a small plate-inspired brasserie that happens to put out clean flavours and inventive cocktails.
For the partners behind the eatery, Canadian Nick Harrison and French chef Alexis Gielbaum, the long journey to the launch has been filled with its own ups and downs. The two met while working at Delhi’s Le Bistro du Parc in 2014 but their endeavour to set up Slink & Bardot started in earnest in February last year, at a dinner at St Jude’s Bakery, for all of 12 people.
A secret pop-up
The dinner, was paid for out of pocket by Harrison and Gielbaum, and served as a showcase for the restaurant that the duo wanted to open in the city. “We were looking for investors, we were looking to see what we could do,” says Harrison. In attendance were Riyaaz Amlani (who Harrison had been in touch with for about two years), food writer Roshni Bajaj Sanghvi and her husband, as well as Mangal Dalal of Restaurant Week India and his wife, Karishma.
Harrison recalls, “Basically, we did a small plates menu, very much in the tone of what we’re doing now. It was a 12-course menu called, ‘The Stereotypes of French Cuisine, They’re All True and That’s Awesome’.” The offering instead of sporting names came with phrases such as ‘The French think lighting food on fire makes it better’ (strawberry charlotte with runny lime and berry flambé); ‘The French undercook their food’ (grapefruit cured gravlax with salmon eggs, capers, and fermented daikon Chantilly); and ‘French food is cheesy’ (chicken sous vide with filo wrapped camembert and blue cheese foam) to name a few. “I think that’s a lot of what the industry is right now, is contextualising, and giving people a reason why it’s interesting and why they should care about it,” says Harrison. “Simply delivering good food just isn’t enough any more.”
He continues that ultimately, several of those dishes from the dinner did find their way onto the restaurant’s a la carte menu now. For instance the ‘French food is rich’ dish which was confit lamb croquette with lavender jus and ‘The French eat their wine’ which consists of buffalo cheek bourguignon with fondant potatoes and red wine jus. For the dinner itself, there were setbacks, like the fact that the fridge broke down, and the duo had to buy all of their produce again, as almost everything had spoiled. In the end though, the meal won Amlani over and he came onboard as an investor.
Passion and pedigree
The partners have extensive experience with food but the challenges that have accompanied the opening of this restaurant have been many. Harrison has studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, and has worked in London and Ibiza. Similarly, Gielbaum has worked in kitchens in France, Japan, Italy and on the Orient Express. “The produce is different, and even the products that you have, like carrots, tomatoes, onions, that obviously we have in France [but here, it’s] different,” says Gielbaum. “I really needed to start from scratch. Most of what I am expecting to have is not available, obviously. In France you work with very different kinds of vegetables and meat than you have in India.”
As a result, for Gielbaum, the challenge was to choose a recipe that could work without compromising on taste, given the constraints. That said, dishes on the menu rarely crack the ₹500 mark, and the eatery is sourcing about 90% of their produce from the local market, except for, “a few cheeses, charcuterie and Belgian pork belly”.
As a passion project and restaurant, Harrison and Gielbaum have been able to stay true to their initial meal, working through delays. As Amlani told Harrison subsequent to the dinner, “It was the sexy food and good storytelling,” that sold him. And the restaurant partners are excited about finally showcasing their food, drinks and more to the city.
Slink & Bardot, Thadani House, Worli. Phone: 6002 8555.
