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By Anthony Shu
Little Blue Door’s street food-inspired menu includes smashed sesame patta chaat, fava bean vada pav and dishes roasted on a rotisserie. Photo courtesy Angelina Hong.
Los Altos’ gourmet food hall State Street Market has another addition to its star chef-filled lineup that includes Traci Des Jardins’ el Alto and Meichih and Michael Kim’s B?o Bèi. On April 6, Srijith Gopinathan and Ayesha Thapar of Ettan opened a more relaxed establishment named Little Blue Door. “We are excited to be at State Street Market with some of the best chefs in town,” says Gopinathan, who also helms San Francisco’s Michelin-starred Campton Place.
Little Blue Door’s cuisine is inspired by Gopinathan’s native state of Kerala but presents dishes that draw from street foods throughout the country of India. These chaat-inspired starters include interpretations of Kerala’s egg puffs, which envelop hard-boiled eggs and seasoned onions in flaky pastry, and vada pav, fried vegetable patties made here with fava beans sandwiched in buttery bread. Gopinathan is especially enthusiastic about recreating Kerala fried chicken, traditionally fried in wide cast iron pans filled with bubbling oil, which will be served with an aioli flavored with garlic, ginger and fresh herbs.
As a main course, diners can enjoy roasted chicken marinated in kashundi, the fermented paste of mustard seeds and green mango, and cauliflower coated in a crunchy layer of puffed rice, both slowly cooked on the rotisserie. While Little Blue Door at State Street Market is the first casual restaurant from the team of Gopinathan and Thapar, they are looking to open more locations of this more informal concept.
Little Blue Door is now open with limited hours and will eventually match the opening hours of State Street Market, which are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays and Wednesdays and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.
Little Blue Door, 170 State St., Los Altos; Instagram: @littlebluedoorrestaurant.
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