Tenderloin Rossini With Foie Gras at Brasa. — MARINA SUWENDY and courtesy photos
Latest addition to group on mission to grow KL’s wine community
WHEN the invitation arrived to have a taste of Brasa’s offerings with Cinnamon Group founder and group chief executive officer Abbi Kanthasamy, I went on a Google spree to prep myself about the restobar.
The first image that I saw on its Instagram @brasakl? A thick, juicy slab of meat engulfed in flames over a wood fire grill.
I promptly accepted the invitation and counted down the days.
Located in affluent Damansara Heights, Brasa – like its sisters within the group – has been decorated to the nines and is quite the feast for the eyes.
Decked out like a winery tunnel with its bare brick walls and wine bottles, Brasa’s retro booths make for a rustic dining atmosphere.
It’s quite the looker, but can it hold up to its established big sisters within the group’s portfolio?
Looking through the menu, one can’t help but be somewhat surprised by the seemingly mixed styles of cuisines on offer, ranging from Tandoori Skewers and Moroccan Lamb Meatballs to the wood-fire grilled Boston Lobster Thermidors and Wagyu Tomahawks.
However, Abbi proudly said the strength of Brasa’s menu laid in its ability to take advantage of the strengths and specialities of the already renowned restaurants within the group, thereby adding a playful mixed bag of elements to their menu.
Charred Wagyu Bone Marrow.
This allows them to offer, alongside their strongly anchored menu of premium wood-fire grilled wagyu steaks, the option to choose from a weekly changing array of interesting specials.
That said, the Charred Wagyu Bone Marrow beckoned us to indulge and savour its decadent, buttery goodness, while the Tenderloin Rossini danced in the hickory wood-fired flames.
But, just as we thought dinner couldn’t be improved upon, we were joined by Cinnamon Group’s head sommelier Andrei Supranovich, who brought a bottle of wine from the volcanic region of Sicily: Etna Nardalici Terre di Giurfo 2019.
Supranovich said, “People are not that familiar with it, but I like this wine. It is very unique.
“It is not very expensive (RM290) but it is an interesting volcanic red wine.
“Whoever I introduced it to, liked it.”
He went on to speak of customers who had taken his recommendation to try a wine, and ended up liking it enough to order 12 bottles to be delivered to their residence.
“We offer a 20% discount for takeaway wine and even same-day delivery.
“We are famous now for our grilled food, but hopefully in the future, we will be famous as a wine retail outlet as well,” he said.
Abbi said, “Unlike others, we went aggressive and expanded during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
He said the group added a wine importing company to the fold, and that Brasa had been strategically opened to helm his plans as the connecting piece to what he was ultimately trying to achieve.
Brasa’s rustic dining atmosphere.
“We are looking to build a true wine community in Malaysia.
“We will be launching a subscription-based membership, which will entitle members to enjoy carefully selected bottles of wine and they will also have access to our cellar of over 2,000 labels, which includes some very hard-to-find vintages,” he said.
He discussed the importance of currently prioritising opening people up to get to know the world of wine, above the cushion of profit margins.
Abbi said some of the bottles available were even being sold near to cost, but he saw value in doing so as it was part of a step towards introducing wine to people, and establishing a strong wine culture and community.
He said an upcoming wine pairing dinner hosted at Brasa would be on Aug 16, priced at RM330++ per person.
“We are going to have wine dinners. And not just pour wine, but we will carefully choose the wine and then create the proper food around it,” he added.
Details on the wine dinner are on its Intagram page and available by reservation only.
The elegant dinners will see Supranovich properly introduce the selection of wine paired with their most suitable dishes to give clients the right experience.
As we closed our dinner with a delightfully light pistachio tiramisu, Supranovich spoke excitedly of the ambitions and possibilities in store for Brasa, mentioning that they had even been talking about creating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to target the digitally savvy.
Specifics on this will be announced to members once they have kicked-off a membership programme.
Supranovich advised that currently the best way to keep up-to-date on the many upcoming initiatives of Brasa would be to contact their team and request to be added to their mailing list.
To that end, and with a sip of Etna, we toasted the opening of Brasa, the latest player in town by Cinnamon Group.
Brasa, No.50-G, Plaza Damansara, Jalan Medan Setia 2,
Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur.
(Tel: 011-5110 2857) Business hours: 5pm to 10.30pm (daily).
This is the writer’s personal observation and is not an endorsement by StarMetro.
