MYBar is Your Bar: Naresh’s Opens on Main Street

“There were too many ‘My’ places around, MYstudio, My Space, you know...” says Naresh Mehra, owner of Main Street’s newest restaurant and bar. All this time we’ve been thinking the place was called MYbar, but Mehra is now officially referring to it as “Naresh’s,” though, if you’re invited in, he’ll just say, “Welcome to my bar.” He’s not going to post signage in front, preferring to leave the small neon ‘Restaurant and Bar’ sign from the previous tenant in place. It’s confusing. It’s cute. It’s exactly what Mehra intended: a small, casual place where he could invite neighbors, friends and family for a drink and a meal. The restaurant’s motto is “Incredible Friendships Begin at Naresh’s.”

Inside, the place feels like a home with a few distinct dining areas. In one, an antique wooden table flanked by benches offers a view of the restaurant's centerpiece, a wood-fired oven painted to look like a (Fornasetti-inspired?) face. With its dazzling eyes, mouth permanently agape, and tongues of fire spitting forth, the impression is both sensual and fierce. How did Mehra get the City of Santa Monica, notorious for its building code red tape, to approve a wood burning pizza oven? Patience and good friendships don’t hurt. Mehra is a long time Westside restauranteur also of Rose Cafe and The Firehouse. Lucky for us, the neighborhood was on his side from the get go.

The menu at Naresh’s is divided into six categories: Earth, Water, Sky, Land, Pizza and Dessert. Earth offers vegetation. Seafood come from the water. The sky yields chicken and duck. Beef and lamb come from the land. Pizzas, the fifth “element” here, range from traditional (margherita) to Californian (speck, buffalo mozzarella). For dessert, pick from a Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce or Ras Malai, a South Asian type of pudding with a hint of cardamom. Nothing is over $12. There is a full bar, a small selection of beer, and wines are offered by the glass or bottle. It’s a place to take your best friend -- or the place to go to make a new one. Naresh’s debuted last week and is open now nightly for dinner.
·MY Bar Opens For Friends and Family This Week in SM [~ELA~]
·Ply: The Spare Room, Local 1205, Menchie's, MY Bar, MORE! [~ELA~]
·Eater Tracking: Local 1205 For Take-Out Only, MY Bar Replaces Malia [~ELA~]
— Daniela Galarza

Naresh's

2424 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA