Bungalow Evokes a Sense of Home, As You’ve Never Tasted Before

But as the concept of Bungalow took shape, Khanna lost his beloved sister, Radhika. Suddenly, the idea of home stopped being abstract, and turned into something intensely personal.

“She would always say that you are a chosen one, in 1.4 billion people — an entire country feels that they can trust you with their culture and their cuisine,” Khanna tells me, recounting his sister’s sentiments. “Why do you always think of commerce when you’re doing restaurants? You need to do a restaurant for yourself, and create a home for people.”

Bungalow opened on what would have been Radhika’s 50th birthday: March 23, 2024. Khanna’s love for his big sister can be found across the restaurant, from family photos on the walls to the menu.

“So many of the dishes were interpretations of classical dishes that were her favorites. So much of the music is also her favorite. When pain gets transformed into art, it is very holistic, it is very rich, it’s very pure. And I hope I can transcend that moment every single evening, by creating the feeling of home for every single guest.”

Khanna’s love of family and tradition has been the driving inspiration behind Bungalow, with dishes inspired by every single one of India’s 28 states. An Udupi cookbook in the restaurant lounge’s cookbook library inspired the restaurant’s signature spice-roasted pineapple (“almost every table orders it,” says Khanna). There is tender pulled lamb from Rajasthan, tandoori-spiced chicken from Amritsar, and culturally loved classics like daal and biryani.

I caught up with Khanna, as well as Rizvi, to talk about what inspires his many passions, and how he feels all of his successes have been leading to the creation of Bungalow.

Stephen Satterfield: How did you start? And how did you come to associate cooking with a sense of community?

Vikas Khanna: There’s a Sikh shrine just a few blocks from my house where I grew up [in Amritsar]— the Golden Temple — and they have a community kitchen, which serves up 200,000 people, for free, every single day. I was so amazed that when the community comes together, nobody sleeps hungry.

This is what my grandmother taught me — she would always say that food is an equalizer. The richest and the poorest, everybody has to eat. And it’s been ingrained in my head in a very spiritual beginning.

You know, as a diaspora we might be among the richest and the most progressive and most educated right now in America, but there is nothing which replaces the grandmom’s ancestral home. It’s a whole different energy. When you walk into Bungalow, it looks like an old house of an Indian heritage with old carpets, those chairs made out of cane, a huge veranda with so many family images everywhere. To make people feel that, to know they belong to something so powerful — so much bigger than all of us. That’s what we’ve created.

Tell me about the cookbook collection in Bungalow’s lounge.

Khanna: The initial cookbooks were from my personal collection. There’s a chef in India called Sanjeev Kapoor. He’s one of the first people [in India] to be on television, and the first person we saw who wrote books, who became my voice when I was growing up. His book was the first book which went into the library. But we keep getting gifts every day. A lot of Indian chefs are releasing new books and send us copies. It’s amazing to create something in New York City where they feel that, you know, they’re a part of something. All the chefs feel that a piece of them, or their story, is in Bungalow.

And what about about the photos found throughout the restaurant?

Jimmy Rizvi: Whenever we see images of India post-independence, there was so much pride, because people had fought for their very identity. In that time, only the rich had the privilege of getting photographs done, because it was very expensive. There are so many of these original pictures of families dressed up in their ancestral clothes throughout the restaurant, which celebrate our identity, not the colonial one. There are pictures of our families; of us growing up in India.

Khanna: There’s my pictures of my sister; pictures of my mother’s wedding. So many celebrations! We want people to remember that we belong to such a strong heritage. It reminds so many of our guests of having these kinds of images in their homes. It makes them feel they belong to a huge thread of lineage. I have seen their reactions, and it’s very emotional. Every time I walk into the restaurant, [the photographs] make me feel that there is a responsibility, in a way when you belong to such a rich history of culture.

You say your favorite dish on the menu, Ammi’s Lamb Chops, is inspired by Jimmy’s mother.

Khanna: Ammi is a home cook, who is I think one of the best chefs in the world. She comes to the kitchen while I’m marinating the lamb chops, and she’s asking me, “Why are you using so many spices? You just need two — green papaya for tenderizer, and flavor it with green mango powder.” I would have never thought to use that! Dried mango powder adds sourness without adding any moisture, which is amazing, because now you can sear it. Every time somebody takes a first bite, their reaction is, how is it even possible?

It is so emotional for me, because the way that legendary Indian cooking is still happening is in Indian homes — not in restaurants. I was able to translate one dish from their home and bring it to the restaurant. It just sticks with me every time, and blows the mind away the way people respond to it.

As a multi-hyphenate, how does this restaurant fit into your life?

Khanna: Jimmy asks me, “How can you have so much energy to meet like 300, 400 people every night?” I’m like, people give me this energy. People have brought their gifts, people have brought their food they cook that they want you to try. It’s such an emotional connection for these people to have a sense of belonging. People fly from all over the world every night. And I’m like, this is it. This is it. This is what I wanted to achieve and the universe has given me this opportunity.