About DC Restaurant Openings
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
N.H. 48 Indian Kitchen, 4828 MacArthur Blvd., NW
N.H. 48 is the name of the 1,744-mile national highway that connects Delhi with Mumbai and a host of other Indian cities. It’s also the name of a new restaurant on MacArthur Boulevard in the Palisades.
Owners Prady Rana and Bhakti More are both veterans of DC’s vibrant Indian restaurant scene. More worked as a server at Chai Pani and an assistant manager at Tamashaa. She also had stints as maitre d’ at Bresca and Jônt. Rana worked nearly every front-of-house job at Rasika West End before moving to Del Mar, Osteria Mozza, and Fiola Mare. During a brief sojourn at Chai Pani, he met More and her husband, and they quickly connected.
“Her husband drives really cool cars so we became friends,” Rana says. “And this idea always was there that we should start a restaurant.”
The group eventually opened N.H. 48 on September 3. They settled on the highway name because National Highway 48 cuts through More’s home state of Maharashtra and Rana’s hometown of Delhi. On the way, it traverses much of the heartland of India. To develop the menu, Rana and More looked to those regions for inspiration.
Many menu items—crispy palak chaat, dal makhani, pani puri—will be familiar for patrons of the Indian restaurants where More and Rana have worked in the past. But the two are also taking care to hew more closely to the culinary traditions of their home states.
“We want to bring the things that as Indians we grew up with,” More says. “We wanted to create a space where the food is homely. Nothing modernized, nothing having a take on it.”
They are particularly proud of the chicken lollipops (a classic South Asian preparation of crispy frenched wings with spicy chili sauce), dahi ke kebab (pan-fried patties filled with thickened yogurt and herbs), and vada pav (the Mumbai-style street food consisting of a deep-fried potato patty on a soft bun). Mutton ghee roast, a South Indian goat stew enriched with roasted chilies and clarified butter, is a highlight from the menu’s heavier side.
“We’re just locals who worked in these institutions in the city,” Rana says, “and we want to bring a little experience from every restaurant where we’ve worked.”
Ike Allen covers politics, food, culture, and transportation in DC and writes the monthly Hidden Eats column for the magazine. He grew up in DC.
