FLAVORS
Mini oothapam served with assorted
chutneys is one of more than a dozen
items on the Street Snacks menu at
Indique Heights.
izakaya, moving beyond a simple plate of
boquerones can mean a vast canvas for
showcasing a chef’s creativity.
oothapam range in price from $6 to $8,
and have proven consistently popular
with customers.
Powers and Crewe
When chef K.N. Vinod offered small
plates (also known as tiffin) for the first
time at Indique Heights, his Chevy Chase,
Md.-based restaurant, four years ago, they
simply did not catch on with customers.
“When we started, we wanted to do the
entire menu small plates, but unfortunately,
it didn’t work. People weren’t familiar with
Indian small plates,” says Vinod.
60 items (plus daily specials) has ensured
a stream of customers flowing in the front
door, despite a lingering recession. In part,
because of Toro’s success, customers
who check out Coppa (which opened in
December) are often more educated about
what to expect when they order small
plates. They understand the concept of
sharing. They often seek out unfamiliar
ingredients, and expect the approachable
pricing. They’re also familiar with the
pacing of plates that come out of the
kitchen as they’re ready.
“The dishes are brought out to the table
when they’re ready. Some of the street
snacks were ready in no time, but the
tandoori chicken, for example, would take
15-20 minutes to cook, and customers just
didn’t understand. Today, chefs like José
Andrés have greatly helped to educate
customers on the concept.”
In San Francisco’s Japantown at O Izakaya
Lounge, izakaya small plate dishes are
defined by items such as grilled-meat
skewers, seafood dishes and braised
pork belly, priced between $5 and $7 per
plate. Customers are encouraged to try
many different plates, and izakaya-style
lends itself to socializing. Diners can
order a wide array of food, which means
everyone at the table gets a taste without
being committed to an entire entrée. If
customers are still hungry, they can add
more dishes as the night progresses.
Many of the dishes at O Izakaya Lounge
are prep-intensive, requiring more work
on the back end rather than when they
are executed. The trick with small plates
here is that they need to be attractively
While Indique Heights has not gone
completely small-plate, Vinod now offers
more than a dozen items on his Street
Snacks menu divided by regions from
Calcutta to New Delhi to Mumbai. Dishes
such as mini dosas, bhel puri and mini
Hiyayakko, a cold tofu dish with
ginger/soy sauce, grated ginger,
daikon, scallions, daikon sprouts and
katsuo bushi (shaved bonito), is one
of a wide array of small plates on the
menu at O Izakaya Lounge.
The National Culinary Review | June 2010
While there’s still plenty of eater-educating
to be done, it’s fair to say that this kind
of customer awareness seems to be
blossoming everywhere.
SMALL PLATES, BIG CANVAS
That’s good news for chefs interested
in breaking out of the tapas-only mold.
Whether it’s Italian stuzzi, Indian tiffin,
Mediterranean mezze plates or Japanese
