After 37 years, San Francisco's oldest Indian restaurant and its OG celebrity chef are back in the spotlight.

Of the 461 listings on the San Francisco Registry of Legacy Businesses, only one is owned and operated by an Indian entrepreneur.

New Delhi Restaurant was a sensation right out of the gate. Not long after it opened in 1988, it had already become a magnet for Indian celebrities and American luminaries, from Deepak Chopra to Anthony Hopkins to Julia Child. President Bill Clinton stopped by in both his election campaigns.

Founder Ranjan Dey was a prototype for today’s celebrity chefs. At the helm of one of the best Indian restaurants in the U.S. according to the New York Times, by 1990 he had created his own line of New World Spices, each distinctive tin celebrating the stories of a famous Indian figure. With his buoyant personality, Dey radiated warmth, kindness, and know-how.

The Maharaja banquet style dining room at New Delhi Restaurant(Courtesy of New Delhi Restaurant)

Almost 40 years later, Dey is no longer the hot new kid on the block. In a city where the opening of new spots by lauded chefs is about the only thing consistent in the restaurant industry, these days New Delhi flies somewhat under the radar.

But while other mom-and-pop Indian restaurants have failed to hang on in a competitive climate, Ranjan Dey has remained energetically steadfast. New Delhi isn’t the trendy spot influencers are flocking to; it’s the dependable patriarch we can’t stop returning to for comfort and a damn fine meal again and again.

That identity is one for which New Delhi just received major recognition as one of only 50 eateries across the U.S. to win this year’s Backing Historic Small Restaurants grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express.

The grant, which will go in part to have artist Kenneth Cook update his mural on the restaurant’s facade, is just one of the things rocketing Dey back into the local and national spotlight.

As the elder statesman of the Bay Area’s Indian culinary scene, he’s amassed almost 150,000 followers on Instagram (@chefranjan), who tune in to his earnest videos showing off choice selections from New Delhi’s menu and explaining the background of dishes, each ending with his charming personal tagline, “It’s freaking Deylicious.” His upcoming book of essays and recipes charting his journey through the food world from India to Hong Kong to SF—called Freaking Deylicious, of course—will soon be made into a series on Netflix.

(Courtesy of New Delhi Restaurant)

“What I have learned is to really, really become good at the pivot dance,” Dey laughs.

Starting on Sunday is a new initiative spearheaded by Dey and New Delhi Restaurant: Indian Restaurant Week. The biannual event, which will take place around Diwali in fall and Holi in spring, digs deep into memory, heart, and soul with special tasting menus from the chefs of six of SF’s best South Asian restaurants (Bombay Brasserie, Rooh, Tiya, Copra, and Amber) available through October 11th.

“This isn’t just about food,” says Dey. “It’s about elevating our culinary scene. It’s an experience that brings you closer to the culture, heritage, and rich stories of Indian cuisine. [We’re building] a buzz so loud even the honeybees will take notice.”

New Delhi’s Diwali-themed menu for Indian Restaurant Week is likely to include a mix of beautifully spiced traditional dishes and Dey’s own creations, dishes like the historically inspired lemon mustard fish curry (a take on the favorite dish of the Maharani of Kutch Behar, an early warrior for women’s liberation in Bengal) and Kerelan pepper chicken (a made-up word with which Dey christened his creamy white curry with chicken and spices commonly used in the state of Kerala).

“To me, a menu should be a storybook of the restaurant,” says Dey. The elegant New Delhi—its dining room decorated in Maharaja banquet style, with exposed brick walls, stately columns, and white tablecloths—could tell a million of them. Indeed, that’s literally what Dey does with his celebrity dining experience menus, remaking the meals he crafted for a few of his more illustrious visitors, including the peppery twist on chicken tikka masala he made for Clinton or the vegetarian version of mattar channa lamb ghungani he created for Steve Jobs.

Chef Ranjan (2nd from right) with his team (Courtesy of New Delhi Restaurant)

Dey’s vision is boundless, but to the question of scaling up the restaurant or adding new locations, for decades he has replied with the same firm “no.” He measures success not by the scale of his operations but by the way New Delhi supports those locally and abroad. He’s just as proud of Compassionate Chefs Cafe, the nonprofit organization he co-founded to provide necessities to children in Ahmedabad, India, and to facilitate exchanges and understanding between them and low-income kids from the Tenderloin, as he is that the same core restaurant staff has stayed with him for decades.

“Here I get to see you, I get to take care of you, you get to laugh at my jokes,” says Dey. “This is where I have my community.”