No Bones About It
Hill area restaurant (via Nepal) is Philly region’s ‘Finest Griller’

You wouldn’t expect Pat Boone to win the “Best Soul Singer of the Year” award, and you wouldn’t expect Donovan McNabb to win a “Best Shortstop of the Year” statuette, but the outcome was almost as unexpected on July 3 of this year when, as part of the Sunoco Welcome America celebration a “Philly is Grilling” competition was held in Fairmount Park.

Despite the presence of soul food and barbecue restaurant chefs, a panel of celebrity judges picked as the winner of the “Best Overall Grillers” award the most unlikely contestant of all — the Persian Grill at 637 Germantown Pike in Lafayette Hill.

But if the idea of Persian chefs winning such an award is as incongruous as Britney Spears singing Handel’s Messiah, this story gets even more bizarre. It turns out the owner, Bimal Moktan, and chef, Tekman Tamang of Persian Grill, are not Persian at all.

They are (are you ready for this?) from the mountainous Asian nation of Nepal, shoehorned between China and India, whose cuisine is as much of a mystery to Americans as the Colonel’s Secret Recipe. “This grillers’ award was even news in Nepal,” said Bimal. “I got a call from a radio station in Nepal, and they did a half-hour interview with me about winning the contest.”

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This story really begins in the early 1990s, when Dr. Brian Barg, a history teacher at Germantown Academy, visited Nepal. While there, he was very much impressed with the artwork of Bimal, 36, the ninth generation of his family to paint breathtaking landscapes of their ethereal village scenery. (His wife, Januka, is 24.)

As a result, Dr. Barg helped arrange a visit by Bimal to the Philadelphia area, where he has had many successful exhibits of his watercolor art and that of his brother, Binod. (Altogether, Bimal has three brothers and one sister.) One day in 1998, while living in the Lafayette Hill area, Bimal was driving past the Persian Grill, 637 Germantown Pike (opened in 1984), when something made him stop.

“I was curious,” he explained, “because I had never tasted Persian food or any Middle Eastern food before. After eating there, I thought it was the most delicious food I had ever tasted. I went back to have dinner there the next night and the night after that. I kept trying different things on the menu, and it was all so wonderful, I just could not get enough of it.”

Bimal continued coming to the restaurant — so often, in fact, that the owner eventually asked if he would like to have a job there. (He was already spending so much time at Persian Grill, he figured he might as well get paid for it.) Bimal accepted the offer and spent one year learning to cook Persian food. “At that point I felt confident that I could prepare any dish on the menu as well as any real Persian chef from Iran.”

Moktan was so good that the owner eventually decided to retire and sell the restaurant to him two years ago. When Bimal took over, “some customers were concerned that the food might not be the same, but as it turns out, those customers have provided our best advertising. Our business is up 30 percent since we took over, and it’s all been by word-of-mouth. Even 9/11 did not hurt us.”

We had dinner twice recently at Persian Grill. Even on a Monday night, normally the Death Valley of the restaurant business, the place was a beehive. On a typical Friday night, with every table occupied, I struck up a conversation with five Lafayette Hill residents at a nearby table.

“We come here about three times a week for lunch and once a week for dinner,” said John LaBerge. “I’ve lived here for 30 years, and I’ve traveled all over the world, and there’s just no place better than this.” (The other Hillers nodding their assent were Ann Morton, “infamous golfer” and former Springside School teacher; Dave Kannerstein, psychologist and former keyboard player for the Dukes of Destiny; Winnie Lanoix, an executive coach and wife of Kannerstein; and Nancy Adler, wife of Richard Adler, of the Dukes of Destiny.)

Snehal Patel, who helps manage Persian Grill, is also manager of a Boston Market franchise in the West Chester area, where she lives. “I drive an hour and 10 minutes each way to get here,” she said, “but I do not mind because we are like a family. I’ve been here a year-and-a-half, and I love it. If a customer comes to me with a problem, I will do whatever is necessary to fix it.” (Snehal’s husband, Ajya, and Bimal also plan to be partners in the House of Nepal, which will be the area’s first Nepalese restaurant. Right now it is just in the planning stages, and a location has not been found.)

As many miles as Snehal drives to work, server Harshada Patel comes even farther. Twice a week Harshada, who also works in customer service for Wachovia Bank, drives one hour and 45 minutes to the Persian Grill from her home in northwest Maryland. “I just love this place,” she said. “Both the food and the people are the best.” (A niece, Pujashri Tamang, works at Persian Grill as well, and a waitress for the last seven years, Donna Boyle, is also a highly regarded teacher at several dance studios in the area.)

Appetizers at Persian Grill range from $3.50 to $6.50, and most entrees are from $10.95 to $16.95. Typical examples of their exotic dishes are Nargesy, which is sauteed spinach and sweet onions with subtle seasonings and topped with lightly scrambled eggs; Mirza-ghasemi, charcoal-grilled eggplant finely chopped and sauteed with sweet onions, garlic, tomato and eggs; and Chicken Fesenjoon, which is chicken cooked in a glorious sauce made of pomegranate and walnuts and served over fluffy Basmati rice. There are seven vegetarian entrees, four exotic desserts and some very good wines and beers such as Delirium Ale from Belgium, as good a beer as I have ever tasted.

The Persian Grill is open 365 days a year for lunch and dinner. “I never even close for one day,” explained Bimal, “because some customers travel from long distances, and I don’t want to let them down.” The restaurant seats 54 for dinner and seven at the bar, although they have had as many as 65 for private parties and have done off-premises catering for up to 200.

For more information, call 610-825-2705 or visit www.persiangrill.com

In addition to his culinary and management skills, Bimal and his brother, Binod, who still lives in Nepal but visits here often, are both talented artists whose work has been displayed in galleries in Philadelphia, New York, Washington, D.C.; Denmark, Japan, Germany and Montreal, where more than 100 of their works were sold at one show in June of this year.

In April, 15 of their paintings were sold in a show at October Gallery in Old City. (Bimal also creates ponds like the one he made in front of the restaurant.) From November 2 to 24, their works will be exhibited at the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, 625 Montgomery Ave. In Bryn Mawr. (Call 610-525-2821 or visit www.bmpc.org)