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Zubair Mohajir found out he was a semifinalist for a James Beard Award while driving his son to school.
“Honestly, I was dragging my kid to school when my phone blew up,” Mohajir said. “I got so many messages I thought something was wrong.”
Of the five Chicago chefs on the James Beard Foundation’s list of semifinalists for best chef in the Great Lakes region, Zubair Mohajir was the most unexpected, if only because he only opened his first restaurant in 2021. “It’s kind of surreal,” Mohajir said. “It’s definitely humbling. I wasn’t expecting it.”
But he’s no rookie. After growing up Chennai, India (which was known as Madras until 1998), along with some time in Doha, Qatar, he moved with his family to the Chicago region when he was in seventh grade. After a frustrating career in finance, he pivoted to cooking, and within a few years found himself working at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bistro in Yountville, California, before returning to Chicago to start his own pop-up.
While hosting dinners around the city, he got the opportunity to work at Gaggan in Bangkok, Thailand, one of the most acclaimed Indian restaurants in the world. Once he returned to Chicago, he opened a stall at Politian Row, the short-lived food hall in the West Loop.
Clearly, Mohajir doesn’t lack ambition. For his first permanent restaurant, he didn’t open a single concept, but two: Wazwan and The Coach House by Wazwan. Both are BYOB and offer a menu rooted in the cooking of southern India, albeit with plenty of global detours.
Beyond those connections, just about everything else is different. Wazwan is dark, moody and cramped, with low ceilings, high tables and loud music that booms from the speakers. Instead of relying on a waitstaff, you order at the front counter and then grab a seat. The menu itself jumps all over the place, listing traditional Indian dishes like vada pav next to a fried chicken sandwich. Most can be had for less than $20.
The Coach House by Wazwan, located in a literal coach house accessed by walking through Wazwan and past the courtyard, is open, airy and genteel. The music drops in volume, while the service becomes polished and polite. You can only visit by signing up for the eight-course tasting menu, which goes for $150 per person.
Visit Wazwan first.
There should be a rule stating that everyone must start with the Nihari momo. Mohajir has an indelible talent for these dumplings, popular in Tibet and Nepal, which he imbues with seemingly contradictory attributes. How can they be both petite and plump, comforting and complex?
The THC sando, made with tandoori honey chicken, which he also served at Politan Row, is crunchy and greasy in all the right ways. Even better are the chicken wings. Instead of going for maximum crunch, these wings impress with an outrageous layering of spices. Based on a chicken recipe found in the Kerala state in southwestern India, the spice profile takes its time, allowing you to appreciate the tender chicken meat before waves of chile heat and other fragrant notes sweep over your senses.
Two of the main dishes, the Chettinad chicken masala and the inaloban, show Wazwan at its best. The former is so intricately spiced, it’s tempting to wonder which spice didn’t end up in the mix. Yet, the flavor never becomes muddled or confusing.
The Filipino-inspired inaloban features a creamy coconut curry broth, fat rice noodles and one of the most precisely grilled pieces of salmon I can ever remember trying. Mohajir credits his chef de cuisine, Chris De La Cueva, who was born in the Philippines, for helping develop this dish. “When we started to work together, I told him, ‘You have to explore the tradition in you,’” Mohajir said. “Chefs are so busy, we often never think of our own cuisine.”
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Both dishes are so artfully composed and brilliantly seasoned that it’s hard not to wonder why Mohajir didn’t go all in with Wazwan. Perhaps the economics don’t work anymore for this kind of small, yet approachable chef-driven restaurant, but with servers and a larger menu, it’s easy to imagine Wazwan joining the ranks of Chicago neighborhood favorites like Giant and Mi Tocaya Antojeria.
I seriously pondered this when, three courses into my meal at The Coach House, I worried I was in for an expensive clunker. The opening oyster course features such a hefty dose of curry oil on top, it’s hard to even make out the bivalve. Like at Indienne, another of the city’s new Indian-influenced fine dining options, you’ll find a version of pani puri, a popular spherical snack in India. While Indienne paid homage to the flavors while rethinking the presentation, The Coach House takes the traditional spherical puri shell and stuffs it with a seemingly random assortment of ingredients, including fatty toro tuna and a spicy aguachile.
Fortunately, I connected completely on course four, which was — shock, surprise — the momo course. Though Mohajir changes the menu at The Coach House every season, he always includes a dumpling course. When I visited, they came with supremely tender lamb in a potent Madras masala and topped with pickled red onion. Honestly, I’d love to see Mohajir develop a tasting menu of only dumplings.
The meal rights itself from there, which isn’t to say that Mohajir stops throwing curveballs. The fall fara looks and nearly tastes like Italian gnocchi, but is actually based on a traditional Indian dish made with rice flour.
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Mohajir clearly relishes serving these lesser-known specialties. The passion that flashes on his face while talking about the duck Numidian is infectious. This filling final savory course features confit duck that’s formed into a circle and served with a fascinatingly fruity and funky sauce he found in “Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World” by Lilia Zaouali. “This recipe jumped out to me because it sounds Indian, though it’s named after a kingdom in North Africa,” Mohajir said. “It shows the importance of the spice trade even back then.”
Though not as consistent as its more casual sister, The Coach House has enough highlights to recommend. Mohajir’s best dishes explore unexpected connections between cultures and cuisines, and as long as he keeps experimenting and pushing himself, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him winning a James Beard Award in the near future.
nkindelsperger@chicagotribune.com
Wazwan
1742 W. Division St.
312-722-6911
Tribune rating: Between very good and excellent (2½ stars)
Open: Tuesday to Saturday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.; closed Sunday and Monday.
Prices: Starters, $10 to $15; mains, $15 to $22
Noise: Conversation-challenged
Eat. Watch. Do.
Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible, with bathrooms on first floor.
The Coach House by Wazwan
Tribune rating: Very good (2 stars)
Open: Seatings available at 6 p.m. Wednesdays and 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., Thursdays to Saturdays.
Prices: $150 per person.
Noise: Conversation-friendly
Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible, with bathrooms on first floor.
Ratings key: Four stars, outstanding; three stars, excellent; two stars, very good; one star, good; no stars, unsatisfactory. Meals are paid for by the Tribune.