Known for their hunting prowess and exceptional speed — when diving for prey, they can clock more than 200 mph — some peregrine falcons migrate great distances, traveling from breeding grounds in the Arctic to South America for the winter. That spirit of powerful wandering pervades Chef Saif Rahman’s new restaurant in Midtown Raleigh, which takes the migratory bird as both inspiration and its name.
The restaurant anchors the 1000 Social building, part of the $1 billion Raleigh Exchange development — which, given its newness and design, feels a bit like arriving at a very chic airport. Looking for parking, my sense of place was already askew: Where exactly in Raleigh was I? But before I could even get lost, a host came outside to greet me, ushering me to the restaurant’s door.
Inside, the space manages to be at once contemporary, elegant, and warm. Organic materials and moody lighting balance the glass walls that surround diners on three sides, adding natural elements that offset the substantial office tower outside. This is a place to get away; some of the sconce lights are even fabricated to resemble motorcycle tailpipes.
This detail is a nod to Saif’s fondness for Harley-Davidsons, and the entire restaurant is a testament to his love of movement. The menu reflects this, as rather than starters or entrees, Saif breaks his dishes — all of which are meant to be shared — down into categories that evoke travel: arrivals, wanderings, journeys, and departures.
Chef Saif Rahman works with a lineup of top chefs creating fresh fish dishes like Ode to Amina.
It’s fitting for a chef who has also always been on the move: Born in Bangaldesh, Saif’s family immigrated to Queens when he was 10, then settled in North Carolina in his teens. Each of these places shapes the chef today — as did watching chefs on TV, from Julia Child to Alice Waters, studying at the Paul Bocuse Institute in France, and marrying a woman from Mexico. He’s a polygot of cooking techniques and a globe-trotter of culinary delights, but above all, his greatest influence is his grandmother.
“She would grow things, knowing that we would be coming to visit a month later or two months later,” Saif says. “Then she’d harvest it and cook it for us and watch us eat. That whole idea that watching someone’s happiness is why I am the way I am — I like feeding someone (else) more than feeding me.”
So much of Peregrine is personal — from the branches on the wall meant to evoke the mangrove trees of Bangladesh to the piyaji, crispy lentil fritters that Saif remembers as a favorite childhood snack. Both he and his partner and collaborator on Peregrine, Patrick Shanahan — a filmmaker and artist who designed the space and its cocktail program — cite their grandmothers as inspiration for the restaurant. Both women gave their grandsons a deep appreciation of hospitality — for making folks feel welcome and taken care of.
Saif evokes his grandmother directly in an “Ode to Amina,” a fish dish that changes with what’s available locally — dayboat fish — in a Bengali sauce called macher jhol, which the night I had it was more deep fish stock than spice, the tile fish served on bok choy with a bright bit of lemongrass relish atop.
“Ode to Amina started out as a conversation,” Saif says. “I haven’t been back home in 40 years and I’m reminiscing on my childhood memories. … You cannot reverse time; you cannot recreate that moment … so what you do is make a dish as close as possible, but it’s not hers. It’s just as close as you can get. And you remember a little bit more.”
This is how both memory and migration work: We try to remember, to recreate the places and people we love, but they, like those former homes, are imprecise. Somehow the process of trying to recreate them in new times and locations creates something neither completely old nor new.
Take, for instance, Saif’s Bengali Wedding Chicken, which is, as the title suggests, a staple of Bengali wedding celebrations. “It’s made for festive moments, for special moments — and it’s dressed nicely, with rose, tea, and other luxury items,” he says. “The chicken itself is treated with so much respect — it’s treated like Princess Diana!”
The succulent chicken — which includes both a breast and a quarter complete with foot — is impressive and dramatic in presentation, as is fitting for such a celebratory dish. The “yummy sauce” is rich, the layers of spices and aromatics building and blending into a complex curry. It’s perfect with the pulao, titled “Simple Pulao, If You Will.” This rice — Carolina Gold — is anything but simple: It’s flavorful, sweet from sultana raisins and beresta (crispy fried onions), but savory and aromatic as well. It’s Bengali and Southern all at the same time, and soaks up the sauce of the wedding chicken or the thinner broth of Ode to Amina like a Brawny paper towel. Either dish is a win, so order both and make sure to get the pulao and the small dish that most surprised me for its unexpected complexity and punch: brined and smoked carrots.
Sometimes we wander because we are homesick, and sometimes we travel because we crave novelty — a new, unknown experience. At Peregrine, you can do either — they aren’t, after all, mutually exclusive. It’s often the case that nostalgia fuels the development of something new, which is exactly what is happening in Saif’s plates. He’s the first to point out it’s not fusion cooking, and I agree (what even is fusion cooking in a global world? It seems an outdated concept) — it’s just him bringing a collection of places and experiences together in the same space with great attention to detail, cultural respect, and technique.
Another of my favorite dishes once again involved Carolina Gold rice, and served as a “departure” (aka dessert): a perfect bowl of saffron-flavored sweet rice, not quite liquid enough to be called pudding. Named Celebration of Eid because it evokes one of the many iterations of rice pudding eaten to celebrate the breaking of the fast after Ramadan, the delightful bowl comes topped with jaggery, a traditional South Asian sweetener, that is here mixed with almonds and served with crème fraîche. It is many wonderful things at once: sweet, nutty, tangy, earthy, and floral. Like a perfect strawberry shortcake, its balance is key, but here you also have incredible, chewy texture. Already nostalgic for what we were eating, my dining partner and I imagined how wonderful this rice would be the next day for breakfast.
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