Sometimes fresh ideas arise out of unexpected situations. For the owners of Vancouver's Bar Asra, a new globally-inspired restaurant and bar in South Granville, its evolution took flight when the owners found themselves facing a sewer backup in their space.
That unpleasant incident gave executive chefs and owners Kanwardeep Ahluwalia and Baldeep Singh the opportunity to rethink and rebrand the business, which had briefly been a second location of their concept Sirka.
In a way, Sirka's shortened start was a signal that the space itself was ready for something new––specifically something not Indian. That's because for the past 30 years there has been an Indian restaurant at 1480 W 11th Ave, including one very famous one.
After 30 years of Indian restaurants, time for a new concept
Sirka followed Mum'z Rasoi, but previous concepts in the space included Bombay Kitchen + Bar, Vij's Rangoli, and, before that, Vij's (which moved there from its original West Broadway home to West 11th in 1996).
To give the neighbourhood and the location something new, Ahluwalia tells V.I.A. they wanted to do a cocktail-forward concept with a broadly appealing but deeply personal food menu.
"The food is an inspiration - my personal inspiration - from my travels, places where I worked and people who I worked with, and anything I've eaten which left a memory," Ahluwalia says.
Ahluwalia's journeys have been far and wide, which means the menu melds flavours, ingredients, and techniques from around the globe, from Thailand to Italy, with hints of his native India and his home here on Canada's West Coast.
'It's a global affair' says chef-owner
Dishes include a visually stunning ahi tuna crudo with jasmine rice truffles, which is Bar Asra's take on a Thai Nam Khao salad, made using local seafood and citrus for a flavour bomb that honours both tradition and place. The tuna is seared tataki-style, borrowing from the Japanese and the "truffles" akin to Italian arancini.
You'll also see some underappreciated ingredients, like a mustard oil that adds a distinct note of punchiness to the White Bean "guacamole"-style dip. "It's got a pungent kick to it that almost reminds you of wasabi or horseradish," explains Ahluwalia.
The murtabak with jalapeño and cheese reimagines the classic Yemeni street food akin to a stuffed flatbread, while the lamb quiche, wrapped in a Ceylon paratha shell and paired with a mangetout (pea pod) and goat cheese salad, pays tribute to the culinary blending that followed the Ottoman migration to the Indian subcontinent, according to the restaurant.
"There's a lot of fun that we've created with our food and ingredients that we are playing with," adds Ahluwalia."It's a global affair."
Cocktail and wine programs part of the fun journey
Matthew Locke is on board Bar Asra to head up the cocktail program and has similarly been working with influences from around the world, West Coast inspiration, and finding great adaptations for the inventory on hand to come up with the opening drinks list. For example, the Porto Spritz is a white port and tonic highball made with a house-made celery juice and low-sugar cucumber tonic for a refreshing, herbaceous, and nuanced cocktail.
Resourcefulness is at work, as Locke has found a way to make the best of some common bar stock, like coconut rum, used to make the house clarified milk punch that goes into drinks like an elegant sipper with a hint of lychee topped with an edible flower.
While the food and cocktail menu is a mix of global and regional influences and ingredients, Bar Asra's general manager Johann Hart turned to beautiful B.C. to showcase selections outside the mainstream.
"It's small places that you probably have not even heard about or didn't even know they had wine," Hart shares.
He points to bottles from wineries based on Salt Spring Island and even Metro Vancouver's Langley as an example of where "there's some really cool stuff happening."
The goal, adds Hart, is for Bar Asra's wine list to be "showcasing these small vineyards that are doing 1,000 bottles a year, 300 cases a year, rather than the ones that are doing thousands and thousands."
What's in a name? Bar Asra wants guests to experience a journey
Hart also explains how the team landed on the name Bar Asra.
"It means 'journey by night,'" Hart describes. "It's an Arabic word, and was used in the Quran. It ties in with the regions that we are going to be using in our menus and our international vibe."
"We're trying to bring different areas and different cultures and cuisines into one place...Spain, France, Thailand, India, Afghanistan, Yemen––there's all kinds of flavours and interesting things happening, and we are bringing it all together, taking you on a journey," adds Hart. The journey is like a secret unfolding.
Speaking of vibes, the room was designed to evoke a bit of a lush escape but still a reminder the Pacific Northwest is a rainforest zone.
For Ahluwalia, Bar Asra ticks off boxes in two key columns.
"I personally have thought anywhere I go, you can either find good drinks or you could find good food. We wanted to put them together and be able to serve them in one spot where you come for a date night," the chef-owner explains.
"You can have good drinks and have good food and not have to worry about going home hungry," he says of the new concept.
Bar Asra opens on April 15, 2025. For more information, follow @barasrayvr on Instagram.
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