Nishaan

New NYC Restaurant Nishaan Will Open in East Village With Pakistani American Food | Eater NY

"A new East Village counter-service restaurant at 160 First Avenue (between Ninth and 10th Streets) is slated to open sometime this summer; owner Zeeshan Bakhrani frames the concept as born from his background and a desire to meld cultures: "Looking at the dishes I enjoyed growing up as a Pakistani kid and an American kid," and figuring out how to "combine them in a way that honors both dishes and it’s not just two dishes slapped together," he says. The menu’s centerpiece is a South Asian take on the chopped cheese: Bakhrani didn’t just want to take a chapli kebab and place it into a burger bun. He thought about the DNAs of the patty-shaped kebab and a chopped cheese, taking the chapli kebab spices like adobo and cinnamon, cooking the meat on a griddle, mixing in pepper jack and American cheese, and dropping it all in a hoagie (he considered swapping in a paratha, the flaky South Asian round bread, but decided it would be too much). There’s also a Buffalo chicken iteration with tandoori spices. He explains the philosophy simply: "I like combining cultures," and that "The invention of the dishes themselves is through some sort of limitations," using what is available. Other savory highlights include bihari barbacoa tacos — tender, smoky shredded beef cooked with bihari spices and topped with a tamarind salsa, resulting in a "smoky chipotle taco," he describes — and an elotes chaat that tops corn with tamarind chutney, chaat masala, a lime-cilantro sauce, bhel (crispy rice), and cotija ("the greatest thing I ever made," he says). The forthcoming spot will also offer loaded fries like the Noom Dhoom masala with an achari mayonnaise and a chopped-cheese iteration. For dessert he’s riffing on the viral Dubai chocolate paratha, a "funnel cake-ish" approach: deep-fry the paratha, add powdered sugar, pistachio sauce, hazelnut sauce, and kadayif (shredded crispy filo) — "nutty, chocolatey, flaky," he says, "We describe it as a flash croissant." Drinks include a gulab jamun cold foam — cardamom coffee topped with saffron cardamom rosewater cold foam and dehydrated gulab jamuns — and a strawberry rosa sago milkshake made with strawberry coconut rosa jellies mixed into strawberry ice cream. Bakhrani’s food history informs the project: he worked in finance product management, collaborated with halal mini-chain Namkeen on the garam masala hot chicken in 2023, ran pop-ups in Chicago and Dallas, and after being laid off in 2024 applied to and was accepted as a Smorgasburg vendor, launching a stall in late August 2024 whose signage proclaimed the stand the "home of the Pakistani chopped cheese." He recalls a passerby saying, "Oh, I don't know what Pakistani food is, but I've had a chopped cheese. I want to try that," and responding, "Yes, that's exactly what I wanted: food that is familiar but different." He also told Eater, "I know how to cook, I know how to sell food," and describes himself as "the kid of immigrants" who feels there is "nothing but work in my brain." The small, roughly 10–14-seat counter-service space will take design cues from the Wazir Khan mosque in Lahore, emphasizing floral geometric shapes, and it retains an inherited arch structure from the address’s predecessor, Sabor A Mexico Taqueria. The restaurant's name means "mark" in Urdu, reflecting his aim that the food leave an impression: he wants people to feel, "Hey this is going to be my comfort food spot, when I’m hungry; when I’m thirsty; when I want something that satisfies the soul; I come here and eat it." - Nadia Chaudhury