Local-ish by 8ish debuts with a Radhanagari cuisine and cocktail tasting menu

The first edition of Local-ish, a new property from 8ish was unveiled, built on a straightforward idea: go somewhere in India, really go stay, eat, ask questions, forage, cook with people and then bring it back, not as a copy but as a conversation. "We are not an Indian bar trying to imitate global trends. We are a bar in India," Jishnu says. "It felt important to understand what exists in our own backyard before looking anywhere else. Local-ish is how we do that."
The first destination, Radhanagari. Located in the Kolhapur district of Maharashtra, Radhanagari is known for the Radhanagari Dam, the Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary, and its high-rainfall landscape in the foothills of the Western Ghats.The cuisine of Radhanagari is a reflection of its fertile farms, dense forests, and rich culinary traditions. The team that headed to Radhanagari included Jishnu AJ and Chef Touseef Shamsudeen

They walked the local markets. They foraged. They sat with families and ate what was put in front of them. They found karvandh berries, tart, earthy, available for only a few weeks between the end of summer and the first rains, indigenous rice varieties, nilgiri leaves with a cooling, mint forward quality unlike anything they had worked with before, and pani fanas, the wild jackfruit of the region, which bears little resemblance in taste to the cultivated fruit most people know.
But it was the evenings that stayed with them. The family of their local host cooked rooster in a spice blend called Chatni Cha Masala, 28 spices, the exact combination a closely held secret passed down without a written recipe anywhere and served it with bhakri beside an open fire. No timers. No measuring cups. No lids on the pots. The kind of cooking that looks effortless because it has been done ten thousand times, guided entirely by instinct and memory.
They tasted wild honey straight from the harvest, alongside bee larvae, the way the community does it. They encountered Rakhti, a dish made from coagulated goat blood and offal, a preparation that speaks to a philosophy where nothing from an animal is set aside. They found jamun trees and stopped to eat the fruit off the branches, the way you do when nobody is watching and the fruit is just there.
The Chatni Cha Masala kept appearing everywhere they went. In every household, a slightly different version of the same idea. "We knew early on that it had to be at the centre of what we brought back," says Jishnu.
Back in Mumbai, Chef Touseef began the work of turning memories into a menu. "Rather than recreating dishes from Radhanagari, we translated memories, ingredients and techniques from the journey into a dining experience. The trip gave us a vocabulary we just wrote with it differently," he said. 
Some highights from the menu:
MIRIN LITCHI / PINK PERCH CEVICHE, PANDHRA RASSA, CORIANDER EMULSION, CRISPY BLACK RICE
Pandhra rassa, the delicate white coconut broth from Kolhapuri tradition, is served chilled alongside cured pink perch or, for the vegetarian version, seasonal litchi marinated with mirin and vinegar, treated with the same care typically reserved for sushi fish. Crispy black rice, pickled shallots and marinated chillies sit alongside.
BLACK RICE RISOTTO WITH MUTTON PICKLE / SPICED JACKFRUIT
A slow cooked black rice risotto, its richness coming from mutton preserved in oil, spice, sesame and coconut, a traditional technique that produces something deeply savoury and unlike the acidic pickles most people know or spiced jackfruit for a vegetarian preparation. Finished with hand-chopped peanut thecha, fried garlic, fried onions and onion oil.
CORN HUSK ICE CREAM, HONEY MILLET GRANOLA, KARVANDH COULIS, WHISKEY GEM & FOREST HONEY
Cereal and milk, made with what the trip yielded. The ice cream base is infused with corn husks, a discarded material that carries a quiet malted sweetness set alongside honey millet granola, wild forest honey gathered during the foraging expedition, a whiskey spiked karvandh coulis, whiskey gem to make it boozier and a honeycomb-shaped tuille.
COCKTAILS
Bael, a fruit significant to Maharashtra but rarely seen in a bar context, becomes a two part serve. A liquid jello not fully set, hovering somewhere between a drink and a texture built from a bael saccharum made with only fruit and sugar, no water added, for a concentration of the fruit that the fresh version can't match. The accompanying gin is infused with the bael shell that would otherwise be discarded. Nothing wasted.
Karvandh gathered from village sellers and roadside vendors during the trip was turned into a month long sweet pickle on the team's return. That preserve now sits at the heart of a gin cocktail finished with vermouth and tonic, giving it a depth the fresh berry in its brief season couldn't offer on its own. And Nilgiri, the most unexpected ingredient of the expedition, yields a water-distilled eucalyptus spirit built on a 12-year-old Scotch layered with a triphala tincture for its citrusy numbing quality and ratanjot for its deep, almost inky colour. It smells like the forest. It tastes like somewhere you weren't expecting to end up.

Rachel Goenka; the Director at 8ish said, "I have always believed that 8ish should occupy its own space not chasing what is happening elsewhere, but building something that could only come from here. Local-ish is a strong statement of that. Jishnu and Chef Touseef brought complementary instincts to this initiative and pushed each other in ways that show on the menu. I am proud of what the team has made, and genuinely excited to see where Local-ish goes next."​

 This experience of cuisine and cocktails is available every Thursday and price at a solid Rs 5500 ++, they do have an a la carte option too. The special menu will go on until end of July. 
Additional Details
Address: Ground Floor, Express Towers, Ramnath Goenka Marg, Nariman Point, Mumbai – 400021
Reservations: +91 9457118888 | [email protected]
Timings: 12:00pm to 1:30am | All Days
Cost for Two: Rs 3,500 with alcohol
Instagram: 8ishmumbai
Notes: Valet Parking available | Reservations and walk-ins accepted