I'm at the chaat cafe. 'm at the brewery. I'm at the combination chaat cafe and brewery.

And that's not even half the story at Windmills, the Dallas area's most eclectic new venue for eating, drinking and, well, everything else. Windmills is a craft brewery, jazz club, Indian restaurant, art book library, cocktail bar, steakhouse and picnic spot all packed into one building which declares itself, accurately, a "Total Environment."

This restaurant is trying to be a million things at once, and it mostly works. A lot of good food and beer gets served in a mesmerizing space.

The main dining room is a concert venue floor with a balcony, bar and a wide stage with a Steinway and, along its sides, shelves full of both real and decorative books. On one side of the balcony, a row of windows looks out into the brewery's production space.

The lower dining area has more bookshelves, this time with all real books, many of them coffee-table art volumes and high-dollar cookbooks from the world's swankiest restaurants.

One day, I swung by the bar for a snack and a pint and became absorbed in the library, picking up still-shrink-wrapped volumes on Nordic baking and Mexican haute cuisine, wondering if I was allowed to open them. (I asked; the answer is yes.)


If you find yourself with some time to spare at Windmills, help yourself to the library. Alison McLean

On the main floor, the tables are arranged in diamond-shaped booths, so when a show's on everyone can crowd around one side to watch. When there's no live performance on, prepare to be serenaded by one of the most eccentric playlists in Texas. Windmills' stereo cranks out hit after hit from past decades, from a collection that might be called "Mostly Latin Retro Bops" or maybe "Songs My Hippie Elementary School Teacher Played During Reading Time."

Pop in for lunch and catch the bossa nova organ stylings of Walter Wanderley and Eumir Deodato, classic tunes from the Buena Vista Social Club, Parisian accordion serenades, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, flamboyant harmonica solos and, just to mix things up, classic American country.

There are more details to be admired about this space, too, like the slatted ceiling, sound-absorbing tiled walls, wide-angled view overlooking an artificial lake and stylish drink coasters. The whole building is putting on a show.

"I feel like I'm in a cruise ship dining room," a friend told me, taking it all in. Then we looked at the menu, presented on an iPad, and he changed his answer: "No, this is more like Epcot."

As a bizarre flutey instrumental cover of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" came over the sound system, it was time to order.

Windmills' beer is, across the board, pretty darn good. I most enjoyed a mild, medium-dark, slightly sweet Mexican lager - compare it to Victoria or Bohemia - and a pale ale that's gently bitter, hoppy but easy to drink. The saison's pretty good, too, and friends said they enjoyed the coffee porter, which manages to taste strongly of coffee without sacrificing the fact that it's meant to taste like beer.


The Wagyu burger topped with a chili pepper sauce Alison McLean

A beer helps when contemplating the food menu, which is long and full of surprises. There are South Asian classics - chaat, grilled kebabs, kulfi - and Texas classics - big steaks, queso, brisket-stuffed jalapenos- in equal measure. There's a burger topped with chile pepper sauce and a chicken kebab with guava glaze.

As with so many Dallas-area restaurants, all the most fun dishes are starters and snacks. Everyone ordering a beer should pair it with kulcha, the super-thin stuffed flatbreads. Windmills has several varieties, including Parmesan and green chile kulcha for spice lovers; so far our favorite folds ground beef and spices into the bread ($13). Topped with an outrageous amount of black sesame seeds, it's a pint's perfect partner.

Lamb seekh kebabs marinate with Kashmiri peppers before going on the grill ($17). The ground lamb is cooked through, but still tender, served with light green raita and a lightly pickled salad of red onions and carrots. There's nothing like a refreshing red onion on a spiced bite of meat.


The towering potato tikki chaat is a creative execution of the classic street snack. Alison McLean

Even better is potato tikki chaat, a beloved street snack loaded with flavors ($11). I'll describe it from the top down. First and most visibly there's a party of crisp fried potato strings, then under that swirls of tamarind and mint chutney and around the sides is a cooling moat of yogurt. Dig in to reveal diced red onion and tomato, pomegranate seeds, fried chickpeas and, deep down at the bottom of the plate, a spiced potato pancake. It's perfectly executed pandemonium.

We were more divided about the Kerala beef fry, a stir fry of sirloin, slices of coconut, shallots and curry leaves served on a coiled flatbread ($17). I kept sneaking bits of the meat, which was seasoned until nearly red, while avoiding the dry, chalky pieces of coconut.

Main courses range from chicken fried steak with duck fat gravy to moilee, a Portuguese-Indian seafood stew. We tried the vegetable kofta, an enormous fritter of carrot, potatoes, other veggies and spices which is cut in half and plated like two twin peaks rising over a pool of sauce ($21). That sauce is creamy and buttery but also loaded with smoked and pureed tomatoes, a tangy, uncommon combination.

Our server was very excited about the lamb chops. In fact, he was genuinely and justly excited about everything, but the chops were as advertised, full-flavored, perfectly cooked and delicious ($36). The plate's other two elements were acquired tastes, though: a sweet tamarind glaze on the lamb and a "khichdi risotto" of rice and lentils that had turned dry and starchy.

But the successes on Windmills' menu clearly outweigh the failures, and there's much more to try. I'm only now noticing that they have a Hill Country potato salad to order with kebabs. All the food shows off the range and quality of Windmills' beer.

When we sat at a booth one Saturday at lunchtime, our server told us that live music was starting that night at 9:30, then suggested we stay to watch. (In fact, many customers book tables for live shows in advance, reserving specific seats like in a concert hall.)

Still, in the moment before we realized that nine more hours at our table would be ridiculous, I looked around at the tanks full of beer, shelves full of books, plush booths and easy chairs, lake outside and menu of snacks, and I thought, yeah, we might stick around.

This DFW Restaurant Week (Aug 9-15), several restaurants will be offering meals, cocktail pairings and more for prices worth celebrating. Proceeds from DFW Restaurant Week will benefit North Texas Food Bank and Lena Pope Home.

So grab your family and friends for your final summer hurrah at one of the local Collin County restaurants participating in DFW Restaurant Week this year!

If you are fully vaccinated or plan to wear personal protective equipment, here are our top five recommendations in Collin County to dine at during this highly-anticipated week of fun and flavor.

Windmills
5755 Grandscape Blvd, The Colony, TX 75056

Enjoy music, good food and good beer at Grandscape's new brewery, Windmills. For $39, you can get two starters and an entree, and pair them with a beer for an additional $5. We can't wait to try the broccoli malai and the blackened redfish, paired with Windmills' signature blonde.

Jazz Weekends at Windmills

Exceptional Summer Performance Schedule!

World-class jazz (plus mouthwatering cuisine and craft beer) is waiting for you at Windmills Brewery, Music, and Restaurant, 5755 Grandscape Blvd, The Colony, Texas 75056. The venue is proud to announce an exceptional schedule of talented, boundary-pushing artists this summer with performances taking place Friday, Saturday, and some Sunday evenings. Tickets are as low as $15.

"We are so happy to welcome folks this summer" says Ron Taylor, Director of Operations Windmills
Music lovers will also want to mark their calendars for:

July 16 and 17 for Ginger Leigh Band (jazz, rock, adult contemporary pop)

August 6,7 & 8 for Gaby Moreno (blues, folk, jazz and soul)

Reserve tickets today! By clicking HERE.
As a performance venue, Windmills is a stunning hidden gem boasting exceptional acoustics - every seat in the house is the best to experience live performances. Enjoy the music while sampling Windmills' fine craft beer selection and savoring carefully curated dishes, such as bourbon ribeye and lemon cumin shrimp. Dishes are prepared using the tandoor oven, where a combination of fire, hot-air and radiant heat cooking, plus the smoky flavor that results from juices dripping on charcoal, guarantees a blend of mouthwatering flavors.

Ample outdoor seating also is available with gorgeous night sky and water views. And no worries, you can hear the beautiful music thanks to the outdoor speakers.

Singer-songwriter, producer and guitarist, Gaby Moreno's original blend of jazz, blues and 1960s rock & soul has earned her the respect and appreciation of audiences in the US, Latin America, Europe and Australia.

In 2006 Gaby won the Grand Prize at the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and a Latin Grammy for Best New Artist in 2013. This was followed by a US Grammy nomination in 2017 for Best Latin Pop Album for "Illusion", and a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album in 2020 for her album "Spangled", in collaboration with American musician & songwriter, Van Dyke Parks. She has also co-written the theme song for NBC's hit television show "Parks and Recreation".

"What kind of Indian are you?"

On a train journey home to Connecticut after a New York Yankees game in 2011, Ravi Patel struck up a conversation with a stranger that swiftly took an unpleasant turn. "He proceeded to put four fingers behind his head mimicking feathers (like a stereotype of an Indigenous American) asking if I was this kind of Indian, then putting his finger in the center of his forehead like a dot asking if I was the other Indian," Patel recounts. He and his friends let the incident slide. It wasn't until several years later that Patel was inspired to respond indirectly. In 2019, he flipped this negative experience on its head by establishing Other Desi Beer Co. - a brand that tells the world exactly who he is. (Desi is a colloquial term for a person of South Asian descent living abroad.)

For Asian Indians, and indeed all South Asians, this is a powerful if conflicted time to be in North America. Since the inauguration of Kamala Harris, a growing awareness of South Asian Americans has led to increased interest in our fashion, language, and cuisine. This increasing visibility has given us a much-needed opportunity to throw off the reductive myth of the "model minority."

However, this recognition contrasts sharply with the huge surge in Anti-Asian hate crimes and the disproportionately high rates of Covid-19 infections and fatalities among Asian and Black communities in the West; as well as the horror and helplessness we are feeling in the face of India's current Covid-19 crisis and its spread through South Asia.

Being Brown in North America is still both precarious and challenging. In many fields, including creative industries, representation remains low and barriers to entry are high. And in the beer world, our presence is paper-thin. With close to 9,000 craft breweries in North America, barely more than a handful are owned by Asian-Indian descendants. Nonetheless, these five forerunners are punching above their weight and making their presence known in the beer world. They're doing this by establishing an exciting cross-pollination of American craft brewing and Asian-Indian cuisine, adding fruits and spices common in traditional Indian cuisines, such as cardamom, rice, mango, and cinnamon into their beer menus.

Across the North American continent, five brewery founders - in Dallas, Chicago, New York, Connecticut, and Canada - are paving the way for a wider appreciation of Indian flavors. In doing so, they are proving that greater integration of South Asian and Asian-Indian culture into the craft beer world is possible.

AJAY NAGARAJAN, CEO, WINDMILLS BREWERY, DALLAS

Ajay Nagarajan bought a Mr. Beer homebrew kit from his local 7-Eleven in Dallas in 2008. What started as a hobby quickly developed into a passion, eventually leading Nagarajan to attend Chicago's Siebel Institute, a premier brewing school, where he earned his brewing certification in 2011.

Then, the opportunity to open his own brewery in India came up. Nagarajan partnered with Kamal Sagar of Total Environment Building Systems, who wanted to open a beer and music venue in India. Nagarajan left Dallas and the tech industry behind - he had worked for Texas Instruments and Micron since 1998 - and seized the chance to take the lead in bringing brewpub culture to Bangalore.

Windmills Brewery opened in Bangalore in September 2012, only the third brewpub in the city at that time. But integrating high-quality, American-style craft beer and Indian cuisine on one continent wasn;t enough for Nagarajan. "I always thought that if I could get my Indian chefs [from the Bangalore brewpub] to travel to the USA and the American brewmasters to travel the other way, we could create a model that is sustainable and unique with cross-pollination of talent and management styles," he says.

Nagarajan got his wish when Windmills' parent company began work on a development, The Colony, in a suburb of Dallas, and agreed to incorporate an American branch of the brewpub there offering boutique Indian dishes (Kerala Beef Fry, Kashmiri Lamb Ribs, Shrimp and Fish Pakora). Beer recipes mirror those that have been a hit in Bangalore, including several experimental beers with Indian ingredients.

Currently on tap in Dallas are a sticky, glutinous Rice IPA, balancing sweet, juicy hops with firm starchy rice flavor; and a bright, aromatic saison with mango, passion fruit, and pineapple that balances full, tropical flavors with a gentle yeasty zing. Also in the works, both of which have been hits in Bangalore, are a Coconut Brown Ale and Alphonso Mango Saison. (Alphonso is a delicacy from the west of India. Windmills is trying to source aseptic unpasteurized preservative-free alphonso mango puree from India to make this beer.)

His unique position in both the Indian and American beer industries is an advantage, and Nagarajan is confident about introducing new beers to the Texas market. "We brew small batches and put them on tap and monitor the response," he says, adding that there hasn't been a failure to date. He's also optimistic about the entry of more Asian-Indians into the craft beer world. "We are a curious lot, and our taste buds are keen," he says with a smile. "A lot of us are venturing out into hobbies that we enjoy, and brewing is definitely one of them."

The only U.S. location for the India-born Windmills features a wide range of beers, from crisp pilsners to IPAs, sours and stouts.

If you've driven past the sprawling, ever-growing Grandscape development in The Colony in recent months, you've certainly noticed the striking piece of architecture set just in front of the massive Scheels Sporting Goods store. That eye-catching building is home to Windmills, the newest craft brewery in North Texas, and it finally opened its doors at the end of January.

For the northern reaches of D-FW, Windmills is a bit of a new proposition. Walking in, it's impossible to avoid how grand the space feels. Billing itself as a brewery, restaurant and music venue, Windmills features refined camel-colored walls and furniture.

This is the only U.S. location for the India-born Windmills, and it emphasizes well-balanced, traditional beer styles and a food menu that offers both Texas-inspired favorites like chicken fried Wagyu steak as well as Indian fare like tandoori chicken. With 14 house brews on tap, head brewer John Callaway Ryan has rather successfully engineered a flavor rainbow, ranging from mass appeal faves on the lighter side to beer nerd must-haves on the darkest end of the scale.


Windmills is an upcoming microbrewery and restaurant in the Grandscape development(Grandscape)

The pilsner (5.3% ABV) was crisp and clean without veering into a bland, overtly light terrain, just as the Vienna lager (4.7% ABV) offered a robust, almost Bock-like malty sweetness that is sure to hit both nerds and novices in an equally satisfactory measure. Windmills' hefeweizen (5% ABV), the top-selling beer at the Bangalore Windmills, according to Ryan, was refreshing yet substantial with classic hefe aftertaste notes of banana and clove hitting the tongue smack in the middle.

The flavors grow bolder and tastes more acquired as you continue down the tap selection. Both the saison (7% ABV), as well as the pineapple-forward tropical saison (7% ABV), proffered a nice dose of funkiness while being smoothly drinkable and effervescent. The blackberry tart, a kettle soured ale, was naturally sweet, crisp and just tart enough to earn its name.

The '80s country band Alabama famously sang "If you're gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band." If the mullet-intensive group were to tailor that tune for the Texas brewery scene, it would likely feature lyrics such as "If you're gonna brew in Texas, you gotta have plenty of IPAs on hand." Windmills offers a trio consisting of an IPA (6.6% ABV), a hefty double IPA (10% ABV), and a well-balanced hazy IPA.

True to form, each of the IPA offerings packed the piney punch more reminiscent of west coast examples, and less of the citrus-heavy juicy styles, though the hazy IPA was both fruity yet dry.

The dark end of the spectrum is well represented, ready to serve those drinkers looking for a heavy hitter. The coffee porter (5.9% ABV), brewed with beans from Addison Coffee Roasters, pleasantly delivers the expected roasty, malty sip one looks for from the style. Kicking things up a few notches, Windmills' heaviest beer, the 12.5% ABV Russian imperial stout, is a beautifully silky beer, complete with notes of chocolate and vanilla sweetness. Aged in oak barrels, this is the sort of stout that fans of Lakewood Brewing's famed Temptress will find attractive.

For drinkers lurking south of I-635, picture Windmills as a sort of suburban companion location to the cavernous, industrial chic brewhouse vibe of Steam Theory in West Dallas. Arranged as more of a restaurant with an almost hidden brewery system attached, the non-beer drinkers will be just as at home as the serious suds-seeker.

Windmills is located at 5755 Grandscape Blvd., The Colony.
grandscape.com/directory/windmills/.