Call it the Semma effect. You can now get a good sampling of coastal South Indian food in Manhattan at places like Kanyakumari and Lungi, which adds on Sri Lankan food, too. But we’ve been waiting for an NYC restaurant to do proper justice to the cuisine of Kerala—specifically to the state’s toddy shops, where you sit at a plastic table, drink tumblers of rapidly fermenting palm sap toddy out of tumblers, and eat masala-crusted fish, or chunks of beef sauteed with peppercorns, fried curry leaves, coconut, and shredded shallots. Chatti in Midtown isn't quite that place, but it comes closest in spirit with its “touchings” menu: two dozen tapas-style dishes neatly pictured on placemats for the uninitiated. Their Malabar mutton and various crunchy cutlets are musts, and their toddy shop beef fry and Calicut mussels pair perfectly with a cold beer. Chatti’s mains, though good, are a little expensive for the portion size. We’d sooner send you here for a drinks-and-snacks dinner rather than a three-course meal. The clubby back room can get loud, so sit up front if your needs are quieter. The food might follow the toddy shop model, but the 37th Street restaurant is far from a backwater shack. An ornamental blue shell is whipped off your plate, and replaced with a tamarind amuse bouche. The walls are made of glass bricks, and the bar is stocked with whiskey rather than actual palm toddy (we can dream). Their sambhar vodka cocktail is pretty good though—it has all the complexity of the South Indian dish, just in clarified form and poured over clear ice. It tastes a little like a spicy marg.