612 East
When the five elements of nature meet in tandem, it’s providence that transpires. So, when friends and business partners Rohit Barker and his partner Shylesh Jain sat over a drink a year ago, they came together with one common aspiration — to start a restobar that reflected calm and comfort.
Designer Shruti Jaipuria of Maia Design stepped in with her vibrant colour palette. Rohit’s brother-in-law provided the metatron cube for the logo, taking forward the elements of nature into what emerged as 612 East on Indiranagar’s high street 12th Main.
This modern day lounge and restobar has three floors decked in earthy tones of terracotta, with bright pink and red flamingos dancing behind the bar, courtesy Rahul’s photographer friend Ashish Parmar, bright squirts of colour in trippy furniture, a scrabble board of the day’s specials, hazy glassed corridors, and a terrace with simplicity in symbols.
612 East comes from Earth, Fire, Air, Water, and with a lava stone, fire grilled and smoked menu, the bars have a whimsical simplicity as the expansive menu turns life’s elements into soul food encompassing smoked, lava stoned, baked and fire grilled. This is their signature.
“There are a lot of South American influences on the menu, and soul food. And we took our time to get it right, right music, menu, team, essence to go forward,” explains Rohit Barker.
Our evening in the dim-lit terrace (a candle on the table would be nice) started with the bartender’s mixed berry lemon margarita and smoking whisky sour. Rich in flavour, delicious frozen and berried… kudos to the bartender. Since nitrogen and dry ice is in the news, we enquired about the safety of drinking molecular potions and ThinkTanc manager Raghavendra Rao laid our worries to rest, “We only use dry on the outside, such elements are never put into a drink, and we also guide our customers.”
We started with a classic — a wonderful Lava Stone Grilled Romaine Caesar wedge, with a welcome bite of crunchy, fresh Romaine, garlic croutons, and the most delicious juicy chicken, with parmesan and baked cheese sprinkling. The vegetable skewers however were bland, the chicken kebab infused with saffron and mint alright, while the apple wood smoked salmon fish cakes too bassaish with only a hint of salmon.
Rich in flavour, delicious frozen and berried… kudos to the bartender.
We had the chef’s sauerkraut cheese balls with caper mustard mayo, golden fried cheese balls with a crumbed sauerkraut filling. Next was the choux pastry mushroom and spinach tartlet, the stuffing was delicious, creamy and cheesy… the crust could be thinner. The bacon and prawn croquettes were brilliant, with a nice smoky flavour of crisp bacon with a cheesy soft interior, dunked into mayo. The wooded elements of Smoked Oakwood, hickory are interesting, though whether an Indian palate laps up the subtle taste is questionable.
Then came the pizza poppers, inspired by the many married couples in search of different toppings for the same pizza! Great idea! Chef Sasi Kumar has incorporated two topping pizzas. But our pizza poppers were average, they could have had a toastier base, maybe a sprig of arugula. It is a starter! We tried the beef burger, black hued, a succulent beef patty that was too thin. We like white bread, don’t see the need to blacken a classic regular however cool the black fad is. Very average.
For the mains, it was a slow roasted chateaubriand with mashed potatoes, fondant veggies and green peppercorn sauce. Sounded divine but while the mash and veggies were buttered and crunched, the sauce was average, the meat overdone. Next came the spice rubbed pork spare ribs with roasted baby carrots — plated beautifully, but while the meatwas perfect, there were no baby carrots! For dessert, we picked executive chef Sasi Kumar’s churros delicious, golden fried, crunched up, dunked into thick chocolate sauce, a watery white chocolate one. The Churros could have been thicker to retain its spongy fried texture. The smoked cheesecake, spiked with coconut, had a hint of flavor we couldn’t put our finger on, and the crumble a bit strange.
The ideas on this exhaustive menu are necvertheless interesting. Yet, the journey to the plate isn’t always a success. With a menu that is so refreshingly interesting, and well-researched, it does deserve the best plate forward.
612 EAST
12th Main, Above Entertainment Store, HAL 2nd Stage, Indiranagar, Bangalore
Call 49653446
A meal for two: Rs 2,000 onwards
Must haves: Caesar salad & prawn and bacon croquettes
