Among the varied and plentiful options coming soon to Plano's Legacy Hall is an Indian place from a team with decades of experience.
Blist'r - Fresh Naan Wraps is a collaboration between restaurateur Pardeep Sharma, owner of India Palace and Roti Grill; chef Gilbert Garza, owner of Suze; and food hall guru and restaurant consultant Mark Brezinski.
The menu at Blist'r will be tightly focused, with three wrap sandwiches served on house-made naan bread:
- Char-grilled chicken tikka has marinated, grilled chicken thigh basted with tikka sauce with tomatillo kachumber, combined with lettuce, tamarind and mint cutney, pickled onion, and cilantro turmeric basmatic rice.
- Roasted coconut curry short rib has short rib roasted in a beef-based coconut-curry sauce with tomatillo kachumber, lettuce, curry aioli, and cilantro turmeric basmati rice.
- Spicy vindaloo char-grilled paneer has Indian paneer based with spicy vindaloo sauce, with tomatillo kachumber, lettuce, tamarind and mmint chutney, pickled onion, and cilanto turmeric basmati rice.
Tomatillo kachumber can also be ordered as a side dish. It's like a refreshing salad with julienned lettuce and cabbage, mint, red onion, diced tomatillo, cucumber, and rice vinegar, with a dollop of raita.
There's one side dish: irresistible crispy fried potato wedges, like thick fries, skins still on, dusted in Indian spices and served with curry aioli.
Those who want to skip the naan bread — although why would you, naan bread is awesome — can get the fillings in "bowl" form or over lettuce.
Brezinski and Garza previously worked together on Uptown Urban Market, the food hall concept in the Gables building. Sharma and Brezinski became friends after Brezinski opened Bengal Coast, his Indian-inspired restaurant in the Centrum building.
Sharma's India Palace is considered to be one of Dallas' best Indian restaurants. He had already taken steps towards making a more casual Indian concept with Roti Grill, his modern Indian restaurant in Uptown Dallas.
Blist'r takes some of that spirit and condenses it into a simplified concept. "We all feel like Indian food is going to become more popular, and this is a way to approach it in a fast-casual way," he says.
They'll also be selling some of their sauces to go, Brezinski says. "If you want to do chicken tikka at home, our sauces would make it a convenient meal over rice," he says.
Blist'r will open when the food hall opens, with the current target date being November 9. It's been pushed back a number of times, thanks to the unwieldly task of coordinating multiple concepts and the city of Plano grappling with the newness of the concept.
Blist'r team includes (from left) Pardeep Sharma, Gilbert Garza, and Mark Brezinski.
