Darbar India Makes Pandemic Moves In Branford

Darbar India's location in downtown Branford. The restaurant is moving after 30 years.  Amelia Stefanovics Photos.

After 30 years of serving Northern-Indian style cuisine in the heart of Branford’s downtown, Darbar India is making moves.

 The restaurant that calls a red-brick building with gold-painted doors home is leaving its current address, but not Branford. For three decades, it has opened Main Street to the aromatic smell of Indian spices.

“If it hadn't been for COVID,” general manager Maju Gidwani said, “We wouldn't even think of moving.” 

The sit-down restaurant is moving to a smaller location on Montowese Street, a block away from its current location. It also is planning to focus on its takeout business, which Gidwani said grew during the pandemic. The restaurant's moving date is scheduled to be in mid-summer. 

“We don't need such a big place,” Gidwani said of the current location. 

She said while the takeout business was taking off, the number of customers interested in dining-in declined. Meanwhile, the cost of the rent on the building didn’t budge.

Gidwani and her brother Haresh Nariyani purchased Darbar in 2008 with hopes of fulfilling their American dream of entrepreneurship.The restaurant was originally opened in 1994 by Laxman Sharma.

Gidwani and Nariyani had tried unsuccessfully to start several travel agencies but ultimately turned to restaurant ownership. That’s a business they had a little bit more experience with because their father owned a restaurant in Mumbai, where they grew up. 

While Gidwani originally came to the United States to study accounting, both she and her brother have a passion for food, cooking and entrepreneurship. When a restaurant became available on Main Street, they decided to take a chance.

Though Gidwani and Nariyani are from Southern India, Darbar’s cuisine reflects the Northern Indian roots of their staff, specializing in curries and breads.

The restaurant's new location.

The emphasis on Northern Indian cuisine works well for American palates, which tend to prefer milder spices, said Gidwani and Nariyani. At Darbar, traditional dishes like tandoori chicken are rubbed with milder spices like paprika instead of chili powder to reduce the heat, said Nariyani. 

The restaurant will continue to served up those recipes at the new location but on a smaller scale, said Nariyani. The option for customers to dine-in won’t disappear completely. A small dine-in area will exist at the new location.

Naryani said there also will be new additions to the menu. The restaurant will serve “Indian-style pizza and burritos” as part of a more fast-food approach, he said. 

Even though change is on their doorstep, Gidwani and Nariyani said they love Branford and are looking forward to this next phase of their business. 

"We came here [to America] because it was a dream, that's why,” Gidwani said. “We had other businesses on the internet, but it failed… and since food is one of our passions and we cook a lot at home, we looked no further. This restaurant is our life.”

This piece comes to the Arts Paper through the fifth annual Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI), a program of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. Read more about the program here or by checking out the "YAJI" tag.  Amelia Stefanovics is a junior at Hill Regional Career High School.