Thattu Facebook page
Amid the glittering Michelin-starred eateries and upscale restaurants crowding the West Loop (and making it an ever-better-known destination for serious foodies) sits a kiosk in a food court that dishes out Indian street food — and became one of only two food emporiums in the city to become a semi-finalist in the 2020 James Beard Foundation Awards’ best new restaurant category.
Thattu has occupied its stall in Politan Row for not even a year. There, Chef Margaret Pak and her husband, Vinod Kalathil, serve the curries, snacks and sweets native to Kerala, the southwestern Indian state where Kalathil hails from, in a 10’x17’ stall at that shares the “food row” at 111 N. Aberdeen St. with 11 others.
Pak recently told Block Club Chicago that she fell in love with the cuisine of her husband’s region, learning it from her mother-in-law.
Ironically, though, when she left the corporate world in 2017 to explore her love of cooking, she would up, she told Block Club, not in an Indian restaurant, but in one that specialized in Korean/Polish Food — Kimski, in Bridgeport. While working there she would cook her husband’s specialty dish, an egg-based curry, to her coworkers, and it became a favorite. She began dishing out Kerala-style food at pop-ups around the city and, according to Block Club, caught the eye of Will Donaldson, the founder and CEO of the Politan Group.
The rest is restaurant history.
“This is beyond our wildest expectations,” Kalathil told Block Club. “I was just happy that we’re bringing this cuisine that is kind of nonexistent in Chicago to the crowd — that’s makes us happy.”
Kerala cuisine, according to lonelyplanet.india, is rich with influences from the many ethnic and religious groups that populate or migrated through the region. It features seafood and meat as well as vegetarian dishes, traditional Indian spices, and a hefty dose of coconut, in both milk and its original form. At Thattu, Pak and Kalathil dish out humble “street food,” as opposed to the banquet and feast dishes of the region.
“When we first started this, we wanted people to know about Kerala and the cuisine,” Pak told Block Club. “It floored me that … we are on this list with all these full-fledged restaurants.”
Although Thattu is the stuff chef dreams are made of, Pak said that the couple would love to eventually open a brick-and-mortar restaurant to take its place in “Restaurant Row.”
Thattu is closed during the COVID-19 shutdown.
Alerts Sign-up