You might expect that, for his first restaurant, Avinash Shashidhara would do something a little rarefied. The 44-year-old trained at hotel restaurants in his hometown of Bangalore. When he moved to the UK in 2005, it was to work at Claude Bosi\u2019s two-Michelin-starred Hibiscus in Ludlow, followed by a decade at west London\u2019s River Cafe. Shashidhara returned to Indian food for five years at Pahli Hill in central London, making a Great British Menu appearance in 2023. Now, instead of going further down the fine-dining path, he\u2019s opening a boozer where you can pop in for a pint and a Birmingham balti pie.<\/p>\n
There\u2019ll be more to the Talli Queen<\/a> than beer and bar snacks when it opens in Shepherd\u2019s Bush in late September, but those are Shashidhara\u2019s starting points. \u201cIt\u2019s a pub first and foremost,\u201d he says. Previously, it was the Queen Adelaide, haunt of QPR supporters. The chef, who lives nearby, noticed it had closed down last summer and was struck by how beautiful the pub could look with a little sprucing up. (Talli means \u201ctipsy\u201d in Hindi slang.)<\/p>\n Shashidhara has taken inspiration from drinking dens around India: \u201cFrom Janata Bar in Mumbai to the toddy shops in Kerala, the military canteens in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. I come from Bangalore, which is called the pub city of India,\u201d he says, \u201cso as a university student I\u2019d always gone to pubs where there was amazing food \u2013 super-spicy finger food, or hangover fare like dosa and stews.\u201d At the Talli Queen expect Mangalore buns (a fried bread) and crab sukka, seekh kebabs and spicy egg puffs. Or Coorgi pork, a staple of pubs in Bangalore, with chunks of meat marinated in tart Kachampuli vinegar and toasted spices. \u201cIt\u2019s a really dark, rich, hot-and-sour pork dish, which I think goes super well with drinking culture,\u201d says Shashidhara.<\/p>\n Sign up to newsletters from The Observer<\/p>\n A dispatch from The Observer\u2019s kitchen table \u2013 from Nigel Slater\u2019s recipes to interviews, features and hot tips.<\/p>\n