Chef/owner Asha Gomez confirmed Monday that after dinner service on July 28, she will close Cardamom Hill, the critically acclaimed Indian restaurant she opened on Northside Drive in Berkeley Hills in January 2012.
In 2012, Cardamom Hill was named one of Bon Appetit magazine’s 50 Best New Restaurants, and it made the 2013 James Beard semifinalist list of 20 Best New Restaurants.
Recently, Gomez announced a new bakery cafe concept, Spice to Table, she calls an “Indian patisserie.” It’s set to open Aug. 1 in the Studioplex development on Auburn Avenue in the Old Fourth Ward. And later this year, she will debut a new fast-food fried chicken concept, Spice Road Chicken, at nearby Krog Street Market.
With all that in the works, Gomez called the closing of Cardamom Hill “bittersweet.”
“It was such a great ride,” Gomez said. “It put such an amazing spotlight on regional Indian cuisine — something that I never thought possible, to take Kerala cuisine and elevate it to the grandeur that I believed it deserved. And then to have had the critics and our guests enjoy it and accept it. It was a great, great experience. But it was also a learning experience.
“I’d never been a restaurateur before that. And some of the lessons were tough lessons. But I’m so glad I learned them, because moving forward all of them will really come in handy. The bottom line is that it was a … restaurant that couldn’t accommodate the crowds. We couldn’t take parties over six, and on the weekends we were turning away 100 people.”
Gomez was born in Kerala, the southwestern-most state of India, in the area formerly known as the Malabar Coast. At Cardamom Hill, she became known for her fine dining take on Kerala cooking, featuring an array of traditional spices in dishes with Portuguese, Dutch and French influences, and Southern and contemporary twists.
The restaurant’s signature Kerala fried chicken became a hit at the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival.
In 2013 and 2014, Gomez was named one of Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chef — People’s Choice semifinalists. In 2013, she launched the Third Space at Studioplex, where chefs and home cooks come together for classes and tastings.
“Now I’m bringing this cuisine to a wider audience with Spice to Table,” Gomez said. “It is not a fine dining concept. I’m so excited because I love the business model that we’ve created. Will I redo a Cardamom Hill concept down the line? I would like to believe that at some point, when I’m ready, I would be able to venture back into that.
“But right now I’m busy with two new restaurants. It’s really an exciting time in my life, and a regaining of calm, and not being constantly stressed about Cardamom Hill. I can’t seem to stop smiling because I’m actually relieved. Essentially, one door is closing and many other doors are opening.”
