Tina Li, Contributing Photographer

In 2020, Mahesh Pirthiani heard from the former Zaroka Bar & Grill owners that they planned on selling the Indian restaurant. Pirthiani had been eating at the establishment for over a decade, often bringing his entire family and his colleagues to celebrate birthdays in the restaurant’s basement. Unwilling to let Zaroka go under, Pirthiani sold his 7-11 store and took up the mantle.

After he had poured almost $200,000 into renovations and stewarded the community staple for four years, Yale gave him a year’s notice to close the restaurant last April, citing structural concerns with the wall Zaroka shared with its neighboring building — also owned by Yale. 

But on April 11, Yale told Pirthiani he had to close immediately — two weeks before the original April 30 date. The abrupt closure has left Pirthiani with rotting food in the fridge and the inability to say a proper goodbye to his beloved restaurant. 

“I never thought they would just leave me in the middle of the road with nothing,” Pirthiani said. 

A “clean slate”: Reopening Zaroka

Pirthiani had negotiated a five-year lease with Yale in 2020, with the option for a five-year renewal — a standard business agreement, he said, that made him feel confident investing in the property. But before reopening, the city health department told him he could not operate unless he brought the restaurant up to code. 

“She walked through every inch,” he said of the inspector. “She told me this restaurant will never reopen unless you fix it.”

So he did. For three months during the pandemic, Pirthiani ripped up carpets, rewired the lighting, repainted the walls, updated the bar and restrooms, installed a commercial grease trap and spent thousands on brand-new kitchen appliances. 

In total, he spent about $120,000 on repairs and renovations. Though he was exhausted and had emptied his pockets, in December 2020, Pirthiani opened Zaroka with what he called a “clean slate.”

After taking over, Pirthiani said, he built relationships with regulars who ordered garlic naan with extra garlic, who knew the servers by name. In the evenings, the restaurant hosted graduate student DJ parties and New Raven dance parties. Some customers come for birthdays every year.

“I wanted this place to feel like home,” he said, gesturing to hand-painted tables and Indian décor he brought from his house. “Now they’re telling me it’ll all be bulldozed.”

Pressure from the University to close

Last April, just days after returning home from brain surgery, Pirthiani received a phone call from Yale. They were giving him one year to vacate. The restaurant’s shared wall with the building next door — also owned by the University — was structurally compromised, and Yale planned on demolishing both to make way for a new performing arts building.

According to Alexandra Daum, associate vice president for New Haven Affairs and University Properties, Yale provided Pirthiani “ample time to plan next steps to relocate” upon discovering “serious structural deficiencies at the adjacent building” last year. She did not comment on why the neighboring building — 146 York St. — was compromised. 

On Friday, April 11, several weeks before the agreed upon closure date, Yale representatives visited the restaurant and told Pirthiani to shut down immediately, citing the restaurant’s compromised wall. 

Pirthiani protested. He had a catering order for 510 students from Yale Law School the next morning.

“How could I cancel on the students?” he said. “I told them, find me another kitchen or I’m going to finish the job.”

The University allowed him to complete the order but insisted he close immediately after. However, he had already stocked up for Easter weekend, and the food he had prepared — marinated chicken, lamb, wings — began to rot. If he agreed to close early, Yale would offer him $24,000 in compensation for April’s lost sales — barely enough, he said, to cover payroll and utility bills for the month.

“If I open for a few more days, they say I won’t get the check,” Pirthiani said. “They’re making me pick between closure and compensation.”

According to Daum, Yale offered Pirthiani compensation “equivalent to Zaroka’s sales during its most profitable month to date.” To assist with the transition, Yale has waived base rent charges for the final year of Zaroka’s lease and directed its leasing broker to offer Pirthiani “a suitable alternative location,” Daum said.

Ultimately, Pirthiani chose to close early. 

Yale has offered him two locations to move to: one at 172 York St., which Pirthiani described as an “empty shell” with no kitchen, and another at 1022 Chapel St. — the former site of Sushi on Chapel — which Pirthiani says is too small and lacks key equipment. 

Pirthiani would receive an $120,000 allowance this time to make necessary repairs, but he estimates that both options would require him to invest over $150,000 — and another three months — in renovations. Furthermore, he said, rent at the York Street location is double what he pays now.

“I’ve already been through the nightmare once,” Pirthiani said. “They’ve lost my trust.”

Losing livelihoods and memories

Ahmed Arif Piracha ’28 has patronized Zaroka so often he knows Pirthiani and the waiters. He goes to the restaurant whenever he misses his hometown — Pakistan — and he holds Zaroka close to his heart.

“It’s just sad to see somebody from my own ethnicity, from basically home, be shunned out,” Piracha said. 

Pirthiani told the News he has been speaking with a lawyer who believes that Yale should compensate him for losses until December and, if he were to take the offer to rebuild at another location, they should compensate for the income he won’t have while renovating. The lawyer plans on sending a letter to Yale on his behalf. 

Pirthiani’s father is in hospice care, and his mother is 80. He supports them both, and now, his only source of income is gone. “I’m not saying I should walk away with millions,” he said. “But at least give me something so I can stand back up.”

“I have put my whole heart and soul into this place,” Pirthiani added. “They are going to build over it … all the love and everything [I] put into it. It’s going to be demolished, to ruins, to nothing.”

Zaroka was located on 148 York St.

Eric Song contributed reporting.