A Brighter, Better Space for Bibi Ji

The primary challenge that Bibi Ji faced upon opening six years ago was convincing American diners that Indian cuisine — long lingering in this country’s strip malls as budget buffet fare — deserved to be modernized and demand a higher price. 

Given social-media-igniting dishes like uni biryani, craveable shareables like crisp cauliflower slaked in chili-garlic-sesame sauce, and elevated standards like butter chicken and baingan bharta (arguably the best use of eggplant on the planet), that battle was quickly won. The stylish dining room, trend-defining natty wines curated by cofounder/superstar somm Rajat Parr, and hipster-haute vibes helped, too.

Co-owner and main operator Alejandro Medina’s latest challenge was more Santa Barbaran in flavor: Despite near-dead traffic on the 700 block of State Street and not much support for the improvements that the restaurant had already paid for, rent was going up. “It was a landlord that we didn’t see a future growing with,” said Medina. “We can leave it at that.”

So, over this past spring and summer, they moved everything five blocks up to the heart of the Arts District, one of downtown’s busiest corridors, and everything is all the better for it. Taking over the former McDonald’s at 1213 State Street, the new Bibi Ji is all about smiles and sunshine, its pink walls and ambient light a brilliant contrast to the dark, shady hues of the original space.

“The old place, we were stuck with, and we tried to build our brand around it,” said Medina, who was born and mostly raised in Santa Barbara County. “The new place, we built it around our brand.” 

It also came with a much larger kitchen, enabling catering opportunities as well as Friday to Sunday lunch service, which just started last weekend. Overseeing the day-to-day is Chef Israel Romero, who’s been with Bibi Ji since the early days, learning from cofounders Jessi and Gary Singh before they left the business. “He’s been cooking Indian food for the last 15 years,” said Medina, including Romero’s pre–Bibi Ji experience. “He serves a very key role in our entire operation.”

The menu is mostly the exact same, though there will be an increasing emphasis on Bengali dishes from Kolkata, the hometown of Parr. “We really wanted Kolkata to shine on the menu more,” said Medina, who traveled with his family and Parr to that Indian metropolis last year for further inspiration. Another steady influence comes from consulting chef Kiran Bheemarao, who is originally from Bangalore. “These are all recipes that Kiran and Raj grew up eating,” said Medina, “recipes that Raj’s mom and grandma cooked for him.”

That includes the papri chaat, which I’d never ordered before I visited during the new location’s friends and family dinner in June. The snacky dish, which is popular all around South Asia, smartly combines crunchy, chip-like things with saucy, dip-like things in one explosively flavorful bite. In Bibi Ji’s case, they douse toasted cumin-ajwain crackers, chickpea, and potato with yogurt, tamarind, and chile, playing on texture and taste in addictive ways. 

Over that and classics like the chicken kebab, butter chicken, coconut curry, and perfectly baked naan, we tried a range of the natural, often funky wines that Parr and Medina are championing. That includes Parr’s by-the-glass creations from his San Simeon vineyard and Cambria winery (he purchased the former Stolo property), and Medina’s own wines that he sources from Bolivia, where his dad was born. 

“It was a project that I started with my late father,” he said of his Bitoque wines, which are made from vines thought to be more than a century (or two?) old. “It was really a battle to get them exported. It’s something that I’m very proud that I was able to bring to fruition. The idea of working with these ancient vines is something I never thought I would be able to do.”

Thanks to the larger space, Medina was able to bring all the wines he’s been saving in three separate storage spaces together into one spot, and offer all of them on the list. “I saved a lot of things that I believed would taste better in a few years,” said Medina. “That’s something my bookkeeper hated. He never understood why I was saving wines. I never knew that I’d have a new restaurant, but I knew the wines would speak for themselves wherever I opened them.”

Medina is most amped about Bibi Ji’s block, home to culinary trailblazers like bouchon, Arigato, and Olio e Limone and trendsetters like Sama Sama and Good Lion. “Just the whole mix is better,” said Medina. “We park in the back lot and I see Mitchell [Sjerven] going to bouchon. It’s just really nice to be amongst these established restaurants. Those are the OGs. They’re the people that I looked up to when I opened this place. I still look up to them, and it’s really nice to be in the same neighborhood.”

Bibi Ji, 1213 State St.; (805) 560-6845; bibijisb.com