Indian/Pan-Asian restaurant Raas opens in Lewes
After more than two years of planning, design, restoration, construction and renovation, Masala Hospitality’s Indian and Pan-Asian restaurant Raas has opened on Savannah Road in Lewes. The Masala partnership includes several local doctors and other professionals as well as Chef GG Gupta and his wife Shalini. Together they have transformed the Victorian mansion tucked between 2nd Street Tavern and Heirloom into its latest iteration in more than a century since its initial construction by Capt. Charles W. “Diver” Johnston, a nationally prominent salvage diver.
The building previously housed Christine Hopkins’ Ocean Retreat Day Spa, notable for its deep purple hues. The Masala group, in collaboration with Lewes designers John and Carolyn Lester, restored the color scheme to the more familiar light blues and whites that dressed the building in its years as home to former Lewes Mayor Otis Smith and his wife Hazell, and in later years as headquarters for Rick Bell’s Harvard Business Services.
Raas opens daily at 5 p.m. and serves a variety of Indian and Asian meat, seafood and vegetarian dishes that show off the wide variety of flavors, spices, colors and textures of that culture. For more information about Raas, go to www.raaslewes.com and see Cape Gazette Business of Eating columnist Bob Yesbek’s article at www.capegazette.com/node/186109.
