Cheetie Kumar follows up Garland with new Raleigh restaurant. Here’s what we know

It’s been seven months since Cheetie Kumar and Paul Siler closed their landmark restaurant Garland in downtown Raleigh. The couple is now set to unveil their follow-up project.

Ajja, the new restaurant from Kumar and Siler, will be a neighborhood restaurant focusing on Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Southwest Asian flavors. The restaurant looks to open in late May.

Drawing its name from the Urdu word for “come over” (and pronounced ah-jah), Kumar said the word reflects Ajja’s casual, neighborly vibe.

“I felt like it invoked the kind of casual hospitality we wanted to have in this new restaurant,” Kumar said. “The space is going to have multiple fun areas....It’s a garden party but also a proper restaurant.”

Ajja will share a space with the sweet shop Anisette, which will operate in the mornings and hand off to the new restaurant in the evenings.

At 1,800 square feet, Ajja is a cozier space than Garland and blends indoor and outdoor seating, with a small indoor bar connecting to an outdoor bar on a covered patio. There will be traditional tables and a fire pit with more casual seating. The opening team includes Gaëlle Laforest as general manager and Lindsay Ogden as beverage manager, each Garland alums. Chris Gamble joins the restaurant as chef de cuisine.

“The outside allows us to have this malleable expansive area you can’t have just inside,” Kumar said.

Garland was Kumar’s first restaurant, serving a broadly Asian menu that was often grounded in Indian dishes and flavors and reflected the seasons of North Carolina produce. A musician before she was a James Beard-nominated chef, Kumar uses music to describe the evolution of her restaurant ideas.

“I said this to Gaëlle (Laforest) our GM, Garland is a prog-rock album that did everything all the time, explored so many regions,” Kumar said. “With Ajja, i really wanted to remix just one riff. I really fell like that space to me calls for Mediterranean al fresco dining. I had the desire of being able to translate that into a neighborhood North Carolina space that place with bright, olive oil-based flavors.”

The Ajja menu is still being developed, but expect highly spiced dishes like grilled meats on skewers, a variety of pickles, fresh seasonal vegetables, dips and spreads.

“In Southwest Asia, and the Global South at large, the meal consists of many shared components; each bite can provide a different experience,” Kumar said in a release. “In these parts of the world, the simple gesture of welcoming a guest with food and drink is a deep-rooted tradition. The table is about abundance and intentional generosity. We are excited to embody this spirit of hospitality at Ajja.”

Instead of Garland’s mix of small and large plates, Ajja’s menu will be divided into sections where diners will be largely in control of the combinations that end up on their plates.

“It’s the way I would want to eat in a setting like this,” Kumar said. “It’s food that is a little lighter, but is expressed through spice and the seasons....You’re building a plate as you order, the whole meal kind of evolves as you compose your plate.”

The Garland family

Garland closed in August of 2022, ending a nine years run in Raleigh that meant national acclaim for the restaurant and for Kumar’s food.

As soon as Kumar and Siler announced the closing, the last week of reservations were snatched up instantly by a dining public eager to say goodbye. Kumar said events and various functions have kept her in the Garland kitchen, but that the restaurant continues to be a part of her.

“It’s a family member,” Kumar said of Garland. “It played more than a family member’s share in our lives for so long. I haven’t really disconnected from it. It’s going to inform the next several chapters in my career and in our life.”

The threads of Ajja began forming in 2021, Kumar said, and the restaurant was largely built as a concept before Garland even closed.

“It had an identity early on that’s always been pretty strong,” Kumar said. “(Opening Ajja) I’m finding ways to react and be a little more thoughtful. You’re not going to figure everything out, but you trust your instincts and now the space is going to direct you.”

Garland thrived as a downtown restaurant in the middle of Raleigh, but Ajja opens in a different kind of setting at 209 Bickett Boulevard, on a block with homes and nearby breweries and a different pace. Kumar said it’s a different kind of restaurant than she ever expected to open, but that she’s excited to see how neighbors embrace the new space.

“I never anticipated having a neighborhood restaurant,” Kumar said. “I’m hoping we can be what the neighborhood needs and have a community that’s palpable.”