Inde Spice, the halal Indian restaurant at 526 Commack Road in Deer Park, has asked New York State for permission to serve wine and beer with its curries. Sethi Foods Inc., the company behind the restaurant, filed an application for a restaurant wine license with the State Liquor Authority on August 12, and the filing has completed the agency's intake step.

It would be a first for the restaurant. State Liquor Authority records show no active license at the Commack Road address and none under the Inde Spice name, meaning the dining room has operated dry since it opened. The corporation behind it has been registered with the state since May 2017.

What the license would cover

A restaurant wine license is the State Liquor Authority's mid-tier permit for eateries. It covers wine, beer and cider served at the table, but not spirits, so this is a glass-of-wine-with-dinner application rather than a cocktail bar in the making. For a menu built on tandoori platters, dum biryani and slow-simmered curries, that is the natural fit: a cold lager against the heat of a vindaloo, or a crisp white with the tikka masala.

The application, numbered NA-0240-26-123181 in the state's pending license file, now goes through the SLA's review process. Pending restaurant applications on Long Island have typically taken a few months to move from intake to a decision, which would put a potential first pour at Inde Spice around the holidays if the review goes smoothly.

The restaurant on the other end of the paperwork

Inde Spice has become one of the anchors of Deer Park's food scene along the busy Commack Road corridor, serving a menu that runs from North Indian tandoori and biryani through South Indian dishes and into the Indo-Chinese lane of dishes like Gobi Manchurian. Everything is halal, and the vegetarian and vegan side of the menu is deep enough that plant-based diners treat the place as a destination rather than a compromise.

The restaurant has leaned into an all-you-can-eat format that has built it a following well beyond Deer Park, with diners sampling their way across the menu rather than committing to a single entree. It runs lunch and dinner service and a catering operation that sends party trays across Long Island.

What it means for dinner

For now, nothing changes: the application is pending, not granted, and the kitchen keeps doing what it does. If the license comes through, Deer Park gets something it has not had at this address before, a proper drinks list alongside one of western Suffolk's most distinctive Indian menus. A filing like this is also usually a signal of confidence, the kind of investment a restaurant makes when the dining room is full enough to justify the licensing fees and the wait.

The application joins a steady stream of Long Island restaurants upgrading their service this summer, from pizzerias adding wine service to seafood counters taking their first license. The pattern underneath them all is the same: established local kitchens deciding the next step is a glass of something cold next to the food that built their reputation.