New restaurant Peregrine wants to make dishes Raleigh's never had before
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Raleigh chef Saif Rahman, right, and artist Patrick Shanahan stand next to the bar at Peregrine. Photo: Courtesy of Peregrine
Peregrine, a new restaurant from Raleigh chef Saif Rahman and artist Patrick Shanahan, will open April 9.
Why it matters: Peregrine will be the first fine-dining restaurant to open at The Exchange, a $1 billion mixed-use development located east of North Hills on St. Albans Drive.
- It will also bring a diverse menu with dishes many in the Raleigh area have never seen before.
State of play: Peregrine's menu stays true to its namesake bird, which is known to migrate great distances.
- Similarly, the dishes served at Peregrine chart the path that Rahman, previously of the restaurant Vidrio, has taken to get to Raleigh — from his grandmother's cooking in Bangladesh to the global influences that existed in his childhood home of Queens and the Mexican heritage of his wife.
- The decor of the restaurant — designed by Shanahan, a co-owner of downtown bar Watts & Ward — also traces that journey, with influences taken from the architecture of Tulum as well as the fireplace cooking of Bangladesh and the mangrove forests of its coastline.
Zoom in: The menu, which will change with North Carolina's seasons, includes seafood dishes like a salt-cured amber jack and halibut as well as classic items like duck breast and a dry-aged ribeye steak.
- But intriguingly nestled next to those staples of fine dining are dishes like Bengali wedding chicken, a Dhaka-inspired shish kebab, Bengali onion fritters called piyaji, and a fish curry called macher jhol.
- For dessert, the menu includes a chocolate date fudge with gelato and kumquats, as well a rice-based dessert with saffron, almond sugar and whipped crème fraîche.
- And the cocktail menu is equally exploratory, ranging from the Tigerlily to a gin cocktail featuring rosewater and yuzu to a mai tai featuring pistachio orgeat rather than almond.
What they're saying: "Peregrine is not a Bengali restaurant, but the food is created with the flavors of my childhood and experiences," Rahman told Axios.
- Bengali restaurants don't really exist in the area, though, meaning the flavor combinations will be new for many of the area's diners.
- "The whole idea [of Peregrine] was that you'd be able to travel to different cultures through new flavors," Shanahan added. "And I think that the beautiful thing about food or art or film is that it can transport you and educate you without having to be there."
