New Indian Summer

220 Olivier St · Monterey, California

New Indian
Summer

A cocktail room and North Indian fusion kitchen set inside one of Monterey’s oldest adobe buildings — where a Rajasthani chef of five decades reworks the food he grew up on for a room full of strangers who are about to become regulars.

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COCKTAILS •NORTH INDIAN FUSION •HISTORICAL OLIVIER STREET •MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA •COCKTAILS •NORTH INDIAN FUSION •HISTORICAL OLIVIER STREET •MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA •COCKTAILS •NORTH INDIAN FUSION •HISTORICAL OLIVIER STREET •MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA •
01 — Our Story

Built inside a
standing-room piece
of Monterey history.

The walls at 220 Olivier St have held more than a century of Monterey’s trade, gossip, and appetite. New Indian Summer keeps the thick adobe walls, the worn sills, and the low doorways — and fills them with the smell of cardamom, charred chili, and citrus peel going into a copper shaker.

We didn’t want to build a theme restaurant. We wanted a neighborhood room that happens to serve Rajasthani cooking reworked for a coastal town, and cocktails built with the same spice pantry as the kitchen. The bar and the tandoor share a wall on purpose.

“Same building, same spices, two entirely different ways of getting you to sit down for three hours.”

02 — The Menu

Two kitchens.
One spice rack.

CCocktails

  • Olivier Street Sour$16

    Rye whiskey, tamarind, star anise syrup, egg white, a pinch of black salt.

  • Marigold Fizz$15

    Gin, saffron-infused vermouth, grapefruit, soda, dried rose petal.

  • Thar Smoke$18

    Mezcal, smoked cardamom, fig, lime, finished tableside under a cedar cloche.

  • Monterey Monsoon$14

    Coconut-washed rum, curry leaf, pineapple, chili-lime rim.

  • Adobe Old Fashioned$17

    Bourbon, jaggery syrup, orange bitters, a smoked clove garnish.

PNorth Indian Fusion Plates

  • Rajasthani Lal Maas Short Rib$34

    Braised bone-in short rib in a fiery Mathania chili gravy, finished with fried garlic.

  • Charred Cauliflower Ker Sangri$22

    Desert beans and wild berries from Rajasthan, tossed with roasted cauliflower and dried mango powder.

  • Monterey Bay Tandoori Prawns$29

    Local prawns marinated in yogurt and Kashmiri chili, char-grilled, mint chutney.

  • Butter Chicken Croquettes$18

    Slow-cooked butter chicken folded into crisp croquettes, tomato-fenugreek dip.

  • Saffron Kheer Panna Cotta$13

    Rice pudding reimagined as panna cotta, pistachio brittle, rose gold leaf.

  • Truffle Dal Makhani$19

    Black lentils simmered overnight, finished with cream and a whisper of black truffle.

The full menu changes with what comes off Monterey Bay boats and out of the Salinas Valley fields — ask your server what arrived this week.

RK
5 decades
03 — The Chef

Ranjit Kushawa

Chef Ranjit Kushawa grew up in Rajasthan, in kitchens where spice blends were guarded like family recipes and the tandoor never went cold. Five decades later, that training still sets the pace in our kitchen at 220 Olivier St.

He has cooked through five decades of North Indian kitchens — from roadside dhabas to formal dining rooms — and brought all of it to Monterey: the patience for a slow-built gravy, the instinct for when a chili needs to be bloomed in ghee instead of oil, and an insistence that nothing leaves the kitchen unless he’s tasted it first.

“Rajasthan taught me to cook with what the desert gave us. Monterey gives me the ocean instead. The technique doesn’t change — only what’s on the cutting board.”

04 — Visit

Find us on
Olivier Street.

220 Olivier St
Monterey, CA 93940
Get directions
Tuesday – Thursday5:00pm – 10:00pmFriday – Saturday5:00pm – 11:30pmSunday4:00pm – 9:00pmMondayClosed

Street parking along Olivier and Pacific is limited in the evenings — the Custom House Plaza garage two blocks north is your best bet on weekends.

05 — Reserve

Save a seat at the table.

Tell us when you’d like to come in and we’ll confirm by phone or email. For parties over ten, call the restaurant directly.