An Interview with Cheeni and The Bar Beej Owner, Preeti Waas

Can you tell us a bit of your personal history? What inspired you to become a chef?

I had no intention to be a chef or to open a restaurant or to do any of those things. I just enjoy feeding people. I've always done that. And, you know, I was the one who had all the snacks. People always asked me to bring them. I was th soccer mum with the snacks. I was the Girl Scout leader with the snacks. We were the ones who would host all the holidays at our home. And, when somebody said you should open a restaurant, I said, sure. And that's how that started.

I'm really not a chef. I just like to cook and feed people. But what that means is different for everybody. To my mind, a chef is one who is qualified to lead a kitchen. And I don't consider myself as leading a kitchen as much as we all just work together. An endeavor of this scale cannot be anything but a team effort.

Tell us about the food you serve at Cheeni - are there any specific dishes that are especially personal to you?

Well, the food that we serve at Cheeni is really not restaurant food. It is food that I have served my children as they were growing up. I cooked some of it back home in India. I did more eating than I did cooking when I was growing up. I did a lot of baking, but not as much cooking because we have really great cooks in our family.

In terms of what's especially personal about the menu, truly, every one of the items we serve and is listed on a menu is only there because it's personal to us. It's either personal to my children or my husband or me, or it's reminiscent of a food memory or a particularly poignant time in my life. And I've just translated those moments to dishes.

How do you define hospitality? How does that guide the way you run your businesses?

Hospitality is more than serving people, and that is a very big part of it. But to me it is a fluid process and it flows both ways. We love being hospitable to people who understand that we are there to serve them. But we are not here to be servile, so that that exchange of energy between our guests and our servers and our kitchen and our staff is, when it comes together, it coalesces into this experience for the guest as well as for us. To me, that is true hospitality.

So our staff should be as engaged in the process of serving and hospitality, whether they are washing dishes or whether they're on the line or whether they're actually customer facing. Hospitality is not just a simple description, I don't believe, because it's a flow of energy all the way throughout the space and how that defines how we run Cheeni. Everybody is engaged in the process.

We we have an open kitchen, which is very unusual for most Indian cuisine restaurants and that is something we actually enjoy because, for guests who get to sit at a bar top and and watch the flame in the pan, and the aromas of all the seeds hitting the ghee, the hot ghee and the spluttering and the aromas and the blooming of spices and all of that adds to the hospitality experience.

What does it mean for the business to be a family affair?

It's actually, truly a family business, right? Because my older daughter works here as well. It is a small, family business, but I hesitate to call our staff our family because sometimes we take advantage of our family. The people we take advantage of the most are our family. I will not have that kind of culture where you give staff a false sense of belonging, and that gives you license to demand something of your staff. More hours, having them work on the holiday when they don't want to, for instance — that's that's not something we subscribe to.

Why did you choose Durham for this location? What makes Durham a great food city?

Durham chose me. Durham chose Cheeni is how it feels. Because when we had our location in North Raleigh, easily 20 to 30% of our guests were driving from Durham and Chapel Hill to come dine with us. When this opportunity became available, this phenomenal space right in the middle of downtown, a space I've always admired. When this space became available and it was offered to us, it was a very easy yes. It was scary yes, but a very easy one.

Simply put, Durham shows up. To our businesses and to protests. To games and to shows at DPAC.

What makes Durham a great food city?

Durham is a great food city because of the patrons – they have proven themselves open to supporting what some would consider fringe cuisines, and they continue to show up for the food & beverage industry. DPAC and Duke are huge reasons for restaurants to take a chance on Durham as well.

Every corner that you look at, there's diversity, there's inclusivity, and the community of chefs that we have found here in Durham. And I wouldn't just say the chefs — diners, chefs, bartenders, servers, the entire hospitality community feels exactly like that: a community.

There doesn't seem to be a sense of competition here. We are all peers of the same industry, and we behave like it. And the guest benefits. We are very happy to send folks to one of our neighbors. If they are looking for something in particular, I'll say it. For instance, chicken tikka masala is not on our menu. But, there are five other Indian restaurants within walking distance of Cheeni, and we very happily send them there. Because if they can find it on one of our peers’ menus, and that's what they are looking for, that's what we'd like for them to experience.

What do you love about Durham?

What I knew about Durham years ago, it was a gritty city. It had some sharp corners, some grit to it and people with a lot of personality. It still retains some of its original grit. And it does not hurt to have Duke University here and Chapel Hill so close by. All of those really do bring in such a diverse community from all over the world. We have a global community in Durham, and we appreciate it.

Every day is different. Every guest who walks in the door is different. We have our regulars, so we see familiar faces. We have a sense of community and if I can go home at the end of the day, tired because I've worked and I've worked well and we served people well, that's success to me here.

Where do you like to go on your day off?

I love Seraphine, with Queeny’s being a close second – entirely different cuisines and experiences, to suit the mood and occasion. The gumbo at Seraphine is what comfort food dreams are made of.

I also enjoy shopping at Mode Consignment, but truthfully there is not a lot of downtime to fully enjoy all that Durham has to offer – it would be nice to make that a priority soon.

What was your inspiration for Bar Beej and the cocktails on the menu?

The Bar Beej is really all my daughter Amy. She is responsible for some of the outrageous ingredients that are in our cocktails.

We have fantastic bartenders who actualize her vision, which is great, but she does have a really great palate. The Bar Beej is all Amy. The only thing I provide is the space and the ingredients that come from the kitchen. That's what I believe makes our cocktails so successful. The fact that the ingredients come from the kitchen. There's a through line from our beverages to our food and through our food to our desserts. That is very important, especially when the cuisine is as specialized as Indian regional cuisine.

In terms of the inspiration for the bar name, Beej means seed and everything comes from the seed, everything. So if you look at your entire life force as being contained in one seed.

Why such a big vision for a bar, you would ask, in talking about life forces being contained within the seed? Everything starts from a small idea. Then the other part of it is that the beej mantra in yoga, in the whole holistic vision of Indian wellness, the beej mantra actually speaks to the divine feminine. And I want this to be a space where everybody is first and foremost safe.

So, you can have a single woman coming here, it's just not the kind of bar where we want anyone to come in and feel unsafe. So, you know, it's mom energy here. We're making sure that everyone's going to be taken care of. You can come in here and enjoy your adult beverages and know that somebody else is also looking after you.

Congrats on the James Beard nomination - did you expect the bar to receive so much attention?

Two years in a row for Best Chef Southeast. Yes. First nomination for Best New Bar for the Bar Beej. Did I expect the bar to receive this much attention? No. Quite frankly, no.

But once Amy started the beverage program, I knew it needed attention. What we're doing here at Bar Beej is pretty wild and very different from what a lot of bars are doing. Once the menu was being crafted, I knew we had to put a spotlight on it. I'm very thankful that our creativity flows both ways.

Amy and I work very, very cohesively. Two fingers at the same hand is how it feels, because she has a role in approving what comes out of the kitchen, because she has a great palate and I trust her. She's also my daughter, and she can be very candid with me.

When Amy is creating cocktails, she brings them to me for my final approval, because she knows that I will not hesitate to tell her if something is not working. She takes that feedback and then she only improves on things. She doesn’t just sit on it and feel discouraged by it.

[Bar Beej] is one that she took and ran with it, and I for one am cheering her on 1,000%.

Tell us about the new businesses that are opening this spring. What can we expect?

So we have another Cheeni opening in RTP. It's at the Hub RTP location, and we’re very excited about that one, because we get to be right smack in the center of the Research Triangle Park. Getting to build it from the ground up is very, very exciting.

A business I did not expect to be opening is Nanny Goat Market, which is a little boutique bodega also at the hub RTP. And we're utilizing their previously unplanned for space in the lobby. It's a rather large space. We are taking part of the lobby space, which is the office building.

It's a boutique bodega where you can come down to buy Q-tips or sunscreen or a coffee filter, or you can also find fresh flowers, wine and gifts — all local goods. The thing that I'm most proud of over there is that the refrigerator and freezers are going to be stuffed with ready-to-heat meals made by micro food business entrepreneurs.

For instance, it's starting with my staff here at Cheeni in the kitchen. If any one of them have any hopes of opening their own food business, but they lack the resources for opening a kitchen, they get to utilize our kitchen. I will help them with the government processes and getting their licensing and all of those things.

They get to stock the refrigerators and freezers with their products, so you could find tamales from the Yucatan, or you could find empanadas, or you can find plantains from West Africa. We aim for it to be a global food market.

Are there any traditions you follow when you open a new spot?

In Indian tradition, anytime you occupy a new space, [like] a new house, the first thing you cook is something sweet. Thats inviting peace and prosperity and just the idea of sharing something sweet. All good things, sweet things.

So when we open a new spot, the first thing we make is called Prashad. I'm Punjabi, and that's what we serve in gurdwaras as well. A gurdwara is a temple and everybody is welcome. I love the fact that food from India always has a meaning behind it. It's also nutritionally dense. So it's not just just sugar.

This dessert is actually made with whole wheat flour and ghee and sugar and cardamom. It's like a halva. If some people aren't familiar with what halva is, a little bit goes a long way. So the sharing of that Prashad is saying that we're sharing our good fortune with you. We're sharing nutrition with you, we're welcoming you into our space.

We celebrate Holi. We celebrate Diwali. I'm hoping to celebrate Lohri, which is a Punjabi harvest festival. This is really what I believe, is that in this cosmos, sometimes you don't even have to have a reason to celebrate.

So if there's something to celebrate, let's celebrate it. Why wait for a holiday? I want to express my gratitude to the community that has welcomed us, to the staff that choose to come to work for us and with us every day. For Durham, that is truly welcomed with open arms and we feel at home here.

I never, never imagined it. And now I can't imagine not being here. I'm going to take one day at a time and one step at a time.