Here’s a first look at Cheetie Kumar’s groovy new Raleigh restaurant, Ajja
The main dining room for Cheetie Kumar’s new restaurant, Ajja, isn’t a room at all.
Most of what goes on at this Mediterranean-meets-Middle Eastern restaurant happens outside on the sometimes shady sometimes sun-drenched patio. The walls are linen curtains, strings of paper lanterns pop with color and a curved centerpiece bar is lively with après pool vibes.
It is, in a word, groovy.
Ajja opens its doors Thursday in Raleigh’s Five Points neighborhood as the encore restaurant from Kumar and Paul Siler’s beloved Garland. After nine years and five James Beard semifinalist nods for Kumar, Garland closed last summer in downtown Raleigh.
Ajja will be open for dinner Thursday through Sunday. Reservations are open and booking one month in advance.
Located at 209 Bickett Blvd. in Raleigh, the building that is now Ajja once hosted the first Garland staff holiday party, Kumar said, and other events through the years.
“This street has been in our lives in some way for a long time,” Kumar said. “I love the backyard, the views and skyline. It feels close to downtown without being downtown.”
Ajja menu
Ajja serves a menu that’s organized into four kinds of dishes, which are all meant to go with one another, depending on a diner’s taste or mood.
There are snacks like sharp seasonal pickles, warm olives and fried fish; a collection of dips, including a lentil puree with blistered tomatoes; whipped feta with smashed carrots; and a section of vegetables, like a dish ringing in the beginning of tomato season, with sliced peaches and barrel-aged feta. And perhaps the dish Kumar is most excited about, Kuku Sabzi, a frittata-like dish made of fresh herbs held together by egg, topped with walnuts and seasoned with fenugreek.
Grilled skewers make up the largest dishes of the menu and include buttermilk-marinated chicken thighs with lemon, cilantro and pickled onion, lamb shoulder with yogurt, cucumber and mint, and meaty spare ribs with a peach tamarind glaze.
“The grill has been really fun,” Kumar said. “It’s such a unique style of cooking, high heat cooking....The way I thought about (the menu) is instead of appetizers and entrees, I feel like everything on the menu can go with everything else. It’s a choose your own adventure.”
Neighbor bakery Anisette will close
Initially, Ajja was meant to share the space with the bakery Anisette from Nicole and Jason Evans Groth. This week, Anisette announced on social media that it would close after six-and-a-half years in business.
“It’s hard for us to say goodbye, but the time has come,” read the bakery’s post on the Anisette Instagram account.
Kumar said the future for the front part of the Bickett Boulevard building is still being sorted out, but that she doesn’t expect it to be a coffee and bake shop.
Much of Ajja is meant to be outdoors, Kumar said, and only retreating inside when the weather demanded. With opening weekend looking to be soggy, Kumar is expecting Ajja to use more of the building’s indoor space.
Don’t expect Garland’s greatest hits
Kumar doesn’t expect to reprise old favorites from the Garland days, saying there are too many other dishes to explore.
“At the moment, I’m really excited about new stuff,” Kumar said. “I’m having fun with these dishes being different.”
Garland lived on Martin Street in the heart of downtown Raleigh, a bright light walled in by skyscrapers and concrete and sandwiched between Kumar and Siler’s music venues, Neptune’s and King’s.
Ajja is a departure in just about every way: a patio with a view looking out on the city from a nearby neighborhood. It’s distinctly smaller than Garland, but Kumar believes it has room to breathe.
“Being in an outdoor space, with sight lines of every table, it’s kind of infinite,” Kumar said.
