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Photos By:: Adil Arora
 When Rituu Memaani, a former member of the Club invited me to visit Atara, her boutique hotel in Gurgaon and try out the European and Indian cuisines at the full-service Café Atara, I was slightly apprehensive, not only because it might be difficult to get Delhi members of the club to attend but I was also unsure of how the evening might turn out. After about 6 months of dithering I decided to pay a visit. It was quite a pleasant surprise, to say the least.
What she has created is nothing short of a miracle in the residential area behind the DT Mega Mall on the Golf Course Road. The 15-room boutique hotel is chic, modern, and with facilities lacking nothing that a 5-star property has to offer-in fact, it’s a scaled down version of a 5-star hotel. ‘There are several guest houses and starred hotels in the Delhi NCR region but nothing in between. I wanted to create something in the middle for a discerning client. A hotel that is quiet, obscure but with all the amenities so the guests feel as comfortable as home,’ she says of her vision. Her frequent overseas travels staying at smaller boutique properties helped shape Atara.
 The 24-seater restaurant has also been designed in congruence with the rest of the property. But what impressed me at the tasting was the freshness, quality, variety of dishes and the presentation and we agreed to organise an exclusive event in the restaurant. No problem except she stressed that for a sit-down pre-plated dinner they were not comfortable serving more than 15 persons at a time. We need to have a minimum of 20 members to classify it as Delhi Wine Club dinner, so she agreed to stretch reluctantly. Surprisingly, over 30 members signed up for the dinner-it appears that the good word about her hotel and the restaurant has been already getting around. I managed to convince her to keep the number limited to the number of seats-24, disappointing a few members.
Whether we made the right decision or not, we don’t know. But it turned out to be a big feast for the extended family of DWC members. The evening started fine with a steady flow of snacks that included both chicken and fish that went down well with Prosecco (Swaad Rating 89/100). But the vegetarian three-cheese cigar and Kasundi Broccoli were simply delightful (Swaad Rating-91/100). The ‘cigars’ were crunchy from the outside with multi-flavoured soft cheese that melted in your mouth-ditto for the broccoli.
At the table, you knew that summer was here when the watermelon feta salad became more popular despite the nicely presented, delicious and crunchy Prawn Apple Salad. Many members opted for both instead of one. The dry Gavi DOC was a fair match with the salad (Swaad Rating 85/100). The next course was Prosciutto wrapped in prawns with sauce. The easy drinking Piedmont red wine DOC Dolcetto Monferrato with medium tannins and low acidity, was a very good match for the Prosciutto (Swaad Rating 89/100). The service due to the confusion came under more pressure with the wine service in the meantime getting sluggish as well for a while.
 However, what was lacking in service was more than made up for in generosity by the restaurant (Rating 100/100!). For the main course we had given an option for a European or an Indian dish partly to take the pressure off the kitchen since the kitchen has two sections with the Exec Chef Bhaskar focusing more on the European section. Aubergine au gratin or Spicy Asian Black Cod were expected to be the preferred options whereas the Indian dishes of Dal ki Puri-Sangri and Bhuna Gosht were expected to play second fiddle as a majority of members normally prefer non-Indian cuisine at the wine dinners.
Dinner turns into Feast
There were diverse opinions about the Black cod- a majority felt it was excellent while there were a couple of members who felt it was overcooked. Mine was perfect in texture, taste and presentation. It went fairly well with the Dolcetto as well (Swaad Rating 86/100). But the Curtefranca Rosso DOC 2006 from Ricci Curbastro, the well- known Franciacorta sparkling wine producer, was also a good pairing; it was heavenly with the aubergine au gratin (Swaad Rating 94/100) . Basically the Italian version of Bordeaux blend with an A blend of Cabernet Franc (34%), Cabernet Sauvignon (18%), Merlot (30%) with Carmenere (13%) and Barbera (5%) grapes in the rearguard, the 2006 seemed to be past its prime now and a bit tired but matched the Aubergine dish which our Italian restaurateur member Tarsilo Nataloni passed with distinction.
 Tarsilo wanted to taste the Bhuna Ghosht dished served with half-naan. Then he wanted a full naan, followed by the request of another plate of the meat. That he ordered and polished off 2 additional plates of the main course was a testimony not only to the quality of the meat which he exclaimed was excellent but also the preparation by the Indian chef Dinesh whose puri-sangri was soon finding many takers on the other tables. Never mind that true Marwaris would be shocked at the daal makhani added to their Rajasthani favourite.
Soon, all hell broke loose as if there were no tomorrow! Plates of both the sangri and gosht stated finding themselves on all the tables. Opinions may be divided on which one to give more credit to- the excellent quality of the two Indian Mains or the Curtefranca that actually matched so well (Swaad Rating 94/100). Our unofficial taster Nataloni rated the match best ever with Indian food. The dinner had by now turned into a feast with everyone requesting more dishes and the kitchen and wait staff obliging smilingly.
The well made and presented desserts of thinly sliced chocolate crepes and date cigars with ice cream-over the progressively increasing sound decibels and the bonhomie, made the evening truly ‘replete.’ Some people even complained they had ended up eating more than they should have. The restaurant might be blamed for being overly generous and the two chefs held responsible for the outstanding preparations.
The best compliment for the ‘family’ evening came from a young couple who were the guests of a senior member. Touched by the affection shown by the club members and the surprise cake cutting we organised impromptu, as it was their first wedding anniversary and I had just learnt about it, they said ‘We really had a great time with the members and one of our best food and wine evenings ever. It was like being with family.’
Cafe Atara may not be ready yet to serve a 5-course sit-down meal to the full capacity, as Rituu Memaani had already warned us but we hope to get a positive signal from her in the coming months. In the meantime, it’s a great venue for lunch or dinner and perhaps banquets. Buon appetito!
Subhash Arora
Swaad Rating has been conceptualised by us to rate the food and wine pairing with a maximum possible points of 100. An ordinary wine that gives synergy to the food on the palate may get 95-100/100 whereas the best of wines served with a food with which it clashes may earn it only 80/100 or even less- editor
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