Inside Mirra, Where a Medley of Mexican and Indian Flavors Coexist

Vice President Kamala Harris — the daughter of an Indian woman and Jamaican man — took the podium on Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention at the United Center, three weeks after former President Donald Trump lied about her identity during an interview in Chicago. This may resurface those silly concerns about whether something can be two things at once.

Mirra, a unique restaurant that mixes South Asian and Mexican flavors, is out to prove that duality can exist. The restaurant debuted on Thursday in Bucktown adding another notable recent opening to the area surrounding Damen and Armitage avenues. Neither of the restaurant’s two chefs have Mexican roots. Zubair Mohajir is a James Beard Award nominee for his work at Coach House, his fine-dining Indian restaurant in Wicker Park. Rishi Manoj Kumar is ethnically Indian and from Singapore. He learned to love Mexican food as he worked with Rick Bayless at Bar Sotano in River North.

Their restaurant aims to highlight the tales of South Asian migration in America, stories like how Harris’ mother arrived when she was 19 to go to college. It’s how Northern Indians from Punjab settled in California to build railroads and mingled with Mexicans in the late 19th century. That produced the ubiquitous roti quesadilla which ditched the traditional Mexican tortilla for Indian flatbread. Mirra’s version features roasted mushroom and Amul (a processed cheese from India; the chefs at Logan Square’s Superkhana International use it in their famed butter chicken calzone). The opening menu also features a dum biryani with braised lamb barbacoa. This isn’t a typical biryani diners would buy from a street vendor. Dum biryani is fancy and sealed with a pastry shell over the rice and meat to preserve the aromatics.

Mohajir enjoys chatting with customers at the chef’s table at Coach House. It was there where Mirra took shape as the Southern Indian chef, who grew up in Qatar, found a story of an Indian girl, Mirra, kidnapped and taken to Mexico. He used Mirra’s history as inspiration. A popular Mexico City restaurant, Masala y Maiz, also played a role. In 2022, chefs ​​Norma Listman and Saqib Keval traveled to Chicago and popped up at Bar Sotano after befriending Kumar. Listman is a native of Texcoco, a city about 15 miles northeast of Mexico City. Keval’s parents are from Ethiopia and Kenya; their families were from India, arriving in Africa two centuries prior. They met while working in San Francisco’s Bay Area.

As the idea for Mirra matured, Mohajir and Kumar realized they needed to be more honest. Instead of aping Listman and Keval’s template, they needed to tell their own stories; neither one of them is Mexican. So they shifted and changed the restaurant’s design and changed the menu to better reflect their ideals.

While a tasting menu will eventually arrive on Wednesday, September 4, the opening a la carte menu is accessible with crispy tacos filled with Mexican green curry and scallops, a tandoori and adobo Cornish hen, and a carne asada made with a 40-day dry-aged ribeye and salsa macha. It’s served with mashed roasted eggplant, known as bagan bharta to South Asians. A happy hour menu includes birria samosas, oysters, and drinks from partner David Mor. Mor made the drinks for Mohajir’s Lilac Tiger — the bar in front of Coach House — and has his own establishment. Truce, just up the street from Mirra, was one of the bigger bar openings of 2024. Tony Perez, who also works a Lilac Tiger, curates the wines.

Desserts at traditional South Asian restaurants are sometimes lacking. At Mirra, they’ve combined rasmalai, a Northern Indian sweet made with cheese, with tres leches cake serving it with saffron-cardamom-infused milk. There’s also a rice pudding which should remind diners of flan with nods to kheer, an Indian sweet made with sugar and milk.

Chef Oliver Poilevey, whose family’s French restaurant, Le Bouchon, is down the street from Mirra, says his father, Jean-Claude Poilevey, would not approve of his son using Vietnamese fish sauce in French food. Fusion is a term that’s used sparingly, with chefs fearful that cultures are mashed together without respect for tradition. That’s not what’s happening at Mirra, Kumar and Mohajir say. Their dishes are created thoughtfully. It’s not just about combining cultures by hastily stuffing tandoori chicken into a tortilla and celebrating. Mirra shows how Mexican and South Asian spices and food can complement each other without worry if this is ridiculous cosplay.

Walk through the space below.

Mirra, 1954 W. Armitage Avenue, open 4:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; tasting menu starts Wednesday, September 4. Reservations via OpenTable.