Naran dreamed up Pijja Palace almost a decade ago while enrolled in the restaurant management program at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. I am projecting whatever I want to the public.” “I’m not bound by any rules my concept is where the hell I want it to be. You have to look at things differently, not only to succeed but to just have fun,” says Naran. “I feel like all restaurants should be personal, so if you open some shit that isn’t like you, why did you do this?” Battling parental pushback, neighborhood council naysayers, and complicated cultural expectations, Naran emerges from the rubble - donning an oversized T-shirt, mesh basketball shorts, and a fresh pair of Nikes, no less - to helm the most talked-about restaurant in Los Angeles. Naran’s yearslong quest - which zigs through college and art school, then zags to culinary and restaurant management schools, and acquaints him with sage consultants along the way - leads him to the realization that opening an Indian sports bar at the site of a former foot clinic on the eastside of Los Angeles is his ultimate calling. The story of Pijja Palace follows the well-trodden heroic journey: Raised in the shadows of Dodger Stadium, Naran rejects the safety of a medical or legal career and instead follows a creative calling that sets him off on a path through the unknown. If a party seems like it needs a little extra attention, he personally delivers their orders to make sure all is well.
#New york brilliance full
Brows furrowed but his body at ease, Naran has full view from his perch of diners tearing into crispy pizzas slathered in green chile chutney and delighting in chai whiskey sours served in frosty Delmonico glasses. As the kitchen headed by Miles Shorey fires on all cylinders, Naran calls out orders while overseeing the bisected restaurant. Owner Avish Naran hangs at the expo window that connects the back of house to the dining room. The dimly lit, sticky-floored sports bar of popular imagination is nowhere in sight. The game is on and projected across a dozen flat-screen televisions lining the walls, but that’s not why everyone’s here exactly. Everyone arrives ready to linger a while, huddling close to share lentil-battered onion rings, heaps of house-made pastas, and many, many hot wings. Tables are seamlessly arranged and rearranged again throughout service to accommodate both small and large groups.
#New york brilliance windows
Sunlight streams through the restaurant’s large windows well into the dinner hour this time of year, setting the dining room’s blonde wood accents and pastel palette aglow. It’s been almost three months since Pijja Palace opened for business on the ground floor of a Comfort Inn in Silver Lake.
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