Get saucy with this New West restaurant

If you’ve walked past unit 112 at River Market, you’ve probably wondered what will occupy the spot formerly known as Butcher’s Table, or before that, Freebird.

But before Manish Petwal leads me through a hallway and opens a door into the currently vacant restaurant, he proudly points at a sign: there, in red letters, reads the name Butterica.

Petwal’s food is well-known in New West and in the Tri-Cities: he was previously a part owner of Kalash Indian Cuisine, and is still a manager of the Queensborough restaurant. The last weekend has been busy, with Petwal opening Milaap Indian Kitchen days before in Coquitlam.

The Queensborough local hopes to open Butterica in a few weeks’ time: he has one more inspection, and is still waiting for one more kitchen appliance. As he happily explains how everything will be laid out at the front counter, it’s not hard to imagine the smell of fresh sauce wafting from the warmer, samosas just asking to be devoured, and rice and salads waiting to be dressed in his signature Butterica sauce.

He’s passionate about the vision—so I arch an eyebrow when he says that, in his early years in India, he never ate butter chicken.

“It’s not a very popular dish in India,” says Petwal, noting that the curry—which he likens to a tomato gravy—was a highly requested dish at Kalash. “Everybody was asking for butter chicken, and the sale of [it] was almost 40% of our entire menu.”

Recently, Petwal decided to take a two-month trip to India to see what traditional butter chicken was like, and was fascinated by the variation.

“Back in India, they make it from fresh tomatoes and it has cashews in it…here we make it with canned tomato paste and just plain cream. The taste is different, the style is different, and there’s no authenticity of the butter chicken here,” explains Petwal, who prefers not to call the dish “butter chicken” because it’s a bit of a misnomer.

What dishes can you order at Butterica?

• Samosas

• Salad bowl

• Rice bowl—with a choice of protein

• Naan wraps

• Butterica sauce can be purchased to take home—Petwal says it also works great as a pizza sauce.

“There are people who would say, ‘I want butter chicken, but with lamb,’” says Petwal, which is why he chose to call it Butterica sauce. “Why not a [butter chicken] sauce, but no chicken? I’m planning to just focus on Butterica sauce.”

Butterica’s goal will be to create a fresh sauce daily, easily and quickly accessible to its customers. The sauce will be versatile: you’ll be able to find it in butter-chicken-style dishes, and in wraps, salads, and pasta.

“In Indian restaurants, they have to create so many different styles of curries. They cannot focus on one sauce. Most of the butter chicken here is made from canned tomatoes [and tomato] paste…because it’s faster,” but because Petwal is just focusing on the one sauce, that baggage is gone.

Petwal is also looking for founding members—or what he calls founding angels—to help spread the word about Butterica. Using a GoFundMe, he says those who donate will be able to get a lifetime discount as a way to say thanks.

“It’s not the money I’m after. It’s just that I want this sauce to go out to people, and [so they] can take it so that they can taste the difference. They can taste the real flavour I had back in India.”

Petwal aims to see Butterica open its doors by Sept. 15.