"The 90-minute waits for a seat in Chai Pani’s tiny starter home on Battery Park Avenue are no longer a thing with the move to the spacious historic building in South Slope that was most recently Buxton Hall Barbecue and originally, a roller-skating rink that served Black Asheville. The big reveal on May 21 was a show-stopper, an eye-popping explosion of color, texture, marigolds, murals (including some original to the roller rink,) and what founder Meherwan Irani describes as “happy chaos.” The world-famous matchstick okra fries made the move, but a larger kitchen means an expanded menu, and new soon-to-be world-famous items include the KFC (Kashmiri fried chicken) sandwich, sabudana vada tots, kale pakora chaat and pav pudding." - Kay West
