Ruta’s, a new cafe with Indian flavors, plans opening at Crossroads Collective
Ruta’s, a cafe serving lighter menu items made with Indian flavors, plans to open by mid-April at Crossroads Collective, the food hall announced Thursday.
Ruta Kahate, the new vendor, owned cafes in Goa, India, before returning to the U.S. with her husband and business partner, Neville Desouza.
Instead of returning to Oakland, California, where they lived previously, the couple chose Milwaukee after a visit in the fall.
“The people we met were one of the main draws. So friendly, so open,” Kahate said.
The city, she said, had a “youthful vibe to it” that reminded her of the San Francisco Bay area in the 1990s. The people, she said, were “very enthusiastic, the opposite of jaded,” and it was the kind of atmosphere in which the couple wanted to raise their two teenage daughters.
Her cafe will serve soups, stews, sandwiches and its own baked goods, such as brownies and cookies. It also will have Indian bowls (some with rice, or millet or bread).
“Those will definitely be authentic, but you may not recognize the dishes because they’re regional,” Kahate said.
“And they’re also presented the way I like to present them. They’re super light.”
Beverages will include one made from turmeric, along with coffee and teas. The cafe’s from-scratch cooking will extend to bread, pickles and mustard.
Vegetarian and vegan dishes will be part of the menu, where Kahate’s cooking will follow ayurvedic principles. “The whole goal of ayurvedic cooking is to make it easily digestible,” she said.
It also was how her mother cooked. “I grew up eating Indian food in a lighter way,” Kahate said.
Crossroads Collective is at 2238 N. Farwell Ave.