Popular Birmingham chef opening his third restaurant
Abhi Sainju, the chef who helped introduce Birmingham to dishes from his native Nepal, will open his third restaurant in the Magic City metro area later this summer.
Sainju, the executive chef of Abhi Eatery + Bar and Maro, has partnered with Sam Heide, CEO of Crawford Square Real Estate Advisors, to open Surf Hound, a casual, coastal-inspired restaurant concept, in Mountain Brook Village.
The new restaurant and bar will be at 2721 Cahaba Road in the former Dram Whiskey Bar and Carrigan’s Public House space, which is downstairs from Sainju’s Abhi Eatery + Bar.
The menu will feature Sainju’s take on such classic American bar food as burgers, wings and nachos, as well as grilled fish and other dishes inspired by his Asian roots and his time spent growing up on the beaches of Thailand.
“I’ve always wanted to do burgers and wings – you know, like the American food over here – but with a little twist,” Sainju tells AL.com. “(Heide) came up with the idea of a coastal theme, like a beach bar, and when he came up with the idea, I was like, ‘Let’s do it.’”
Surf Hound will accommodate between 80 to 100 guests, he says, with seating indoors and outside on the patio.
“We’re going to have a lot of TVs,” Sainju says. “We want to make it like a bar where you can watch all the games and still enjoy some good food.
“You can come in casual, just like you’re at the beach — flip flops and all that, no problem — but you’re going to get a high standard of food and a good atmosphere. That’s what we want to do.
“We might have a Japanese barbecue outside the restaurant in the patio area,” he adds. “You know, all the places that I’ve traveled to and what I’ve seen I want to bring that to Birmingham.”
Sainju came to the United States in 1996, and, frustrated that he could not find the food he grew up eating, taught himself to cook some of the Nepalese dishes passed down from his mother and aunts.
In Birmingham, he founded Everest Sushi and served his food at catered events, private parties and at the old Blue Monkey Lounge in Five Points South.
Sainju opened his first restaurant, Abhi Eatery + Bar, in the Summit retail center in 2017, and two years later, he opened a second location of Abhi in Mountain Brook Village. The original Summit location has since closed.
He is also the chef and owner of Maro, a fast-casual Asian-fusion concept that opened in 2023 in Mountain Brook’s Lane Parke development.
Surf Hound should open “sometime in August,” Sainju says.
“We want to be open before the football season,” he says. “We’ll see how it goes, but definitely, by August we want to be running.”
The restaurant and bar will open for dinner and drinks Mondays through Saturdays and for brunch, lunch and dinner on Sundays, Sainju says.
Surf Hound will be at 2721 Cahaba Road in Mountain Brook, Ala. For more information, go to EatSurfHound.com.