Indique, the Cleveland Park Indian restaurant known for pairing Indian street food and warming curries with creative cocktails, has shuttered after more than 20 years on Connecticut Avenue.
Chef K.N. Vinod and business partner Surfy Rahman first opened Indique in 2002, hoping to bring regional dishes from the subcontinent to a wide DC audience in a modern, upscale setting. As the area’s Indian food scene deepened and diversified, Indique remained a neighborhood staple. The dining room made it to Washingtonian’s 100 Best Restaurants list every year from 2004 to 2013.
The restaurant’s lease came to an end in December, and Vinod says he and Rahman decided they didn’t want to commit to the requisite 10-year renewal.
“There was some pressure from our families,” Vinod says. “Everybody’s like, ‘you’re getting up there. Do you really want to make that kind of a commitment for another 10 years?’”
The space is now home to Dakshin, a South Indian restaurant helmed by Deepu Mohan, a former Indique employee, and Hamid Kerim, who owns Dolan Uyghur next door. It opened January 1, and the new menu includes some of the same dishes Vinod cooked at Indique. As Dakshin gets up and running, you can still order takeout through Indique’s website.
Vinod and Rahman immigrated from Kerala and Bihar, respectively, in 1985, having both worked in five-star hotels. They opened their first restaurant, Bombay Bistro, in Rockville in 1992. It’s still open, and the partners intend to revamp its menu now that Indique has closed.
Indique had a more modern, eclectic menu than Bombay Bistro, with traditional Kerala dishes like Malabar fish curry and chicken Chettinad and inventions like Kerala shepherd’s pie. The restaurant’s champagne brunch became a tradition, and its regular customers included Indian diplomats and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright.
In 2006, Vinod and Rahman opened Indique Heights above the Friendship Heights metro entrance. It closed in 2014. Vinod and Rahman’s respective sons, Sahil Rahman and Rahul Vinod, run Rasa, a fast casual chain with five locations in the DC area.
