When Tarun Gupta and his pals had been in faculty, chowing down the standard selections from fast food joints, they joked about an concept.
“Why not an Indian fast food place?” stated Tarun. “You see Chinese language fast food. Mexican. So many cuisines however not Indian.”
Till now. Tarun and his buddy, Drew Rudolph, imagine they’re at the forefront of what might be the subsequent fast food craze: cheap, fast however high quality Indian road food.
The younger entrepreneurs have began with Naantheless, a counter-serve spot within the College Village Purchasing Heart (subsequent to Paper Fox Espresso store) on Pensacola Avenue.
“We went into it with the grand imaginative and prescient that if this works, we will grow to be a fast food chain,” most likely increasing to school markets, stated Tarun. “Step one is ensuring that this location is doing effectively.”
Launching with a delicate opening on Sept. 18, Naantheless presents a restricted menu of six objects plus desserts, drinks and snacks, like India’s Magic Masala potato chips from Lays (so addictive) — with the precise worth of 20 rupees on the bag (27 cents in U.S. {dollars}) — Kulfi (Indian ice cream on a stick), smoothies, Indian drinks and Taj Mahal beer and the native brews Spear Stress and Reef Dweller from DEEP Brewing Firm.
All the pieces is vegetarian and half the objects — the Sloppy Joe Akash, Chickpea Salad and Samosas are vegan.
The costs vary from $2.50 to $5, making it straightforward to experiment and interesting to college students searching for a speedy chew on the go. My husband and I bought six objects and our invoice was $22.20 with tax.
The Naantheless mascot is a whimsical elephant named Akash and the slogan is “Indian Food Made Easy.” The thought is making unique dishes accessible and inexpensive to those that have by no means tried the fascinating flavors of Indian delicacies. Lots of the objects on the menu are the meals Tarun got here throughout in his metropolis of Dehradun India when he was a younger boy.
“Through the day there was not a ton to take action my cousin and I’d stroll alongside the streets,” stated Tarun. “We weren’t actually going wherever. Simply hanging out. There have been all these vendor carts and tiny hole-in-the-wall eating places promoting Indian snacks like samosas, bhelpuri and people Magic Masala chips.”
Tarun’s household left India when he was about 5 years previous and so they moved to Tallahassee, the place he began Sealey Elementary and later attended Rickards Excessive College. Tarun graduated from the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill then received a job working in training consulting in Silicon Valley. It was there, after getting extra constructive suggestions about his concept from fellow professionals, that he determined to pursue his imaginative and prescient of serving Indian fast food.
The dream has grow to be a actuality however it’s been made all of the extra sophisticated by the pandemic. Tarun signed a lease for his storefront eatery in January and he and his father started renovating the previous pizza restaurant. His faculty buddy, Drew, joined him in March simply earlier than the onset of Coronavirus shutdowns.
“Most faculty college students had been out of city, folks weren’t consuming out a lot, so we determined to attend until fall to see if issues had been again to regular,” stated Tarun. Whereas issues aren’t precisely regular, he and Drew are “cautiously optimistic.”
They’re beginning with restricted hours for now from Monday to Friday, regrouping on the weekend, however they hope to ultimately be an evening place selection for hungry college students. It’s principally takeout however there are a pair tables inside and out of doors.
What helps set Naantheless’ menu aside within the fast food world is that these dishes are selfmade.
“For probably the most half all these recipes are my mother’s,” stated Tarun. “We began out studying from her as a result of we had zero cooking expertise.”
Now Tarun and Drew do all of the cooking, tweaking the standard recipes a bit, and the outcomes are spectacular, beginning with their very own, constituted of scratch tamarind-based “brown sauce.” It’s flavorful and well-spiced with out being overwhelming, so good you’ll need to slather it on every little thing. The opposite choice is a “pink sauce,” a Maggi scorching and candy sauce.
We dipped our savory samosas into these sauces and wolfed them up. Samosas are a signature road food pairing a shell of crunchy fried dough with an fragrant potato filling. The counterpoint of textures helps make these so beloved. An order of two samosas is $3.50 and there’s no skimping on dimension..
I’ve ordered Bhelpuri in varied Indian eating places and cooks at all times have their very own twist. At Naantheless, it’s a enjoyable mixture of puffed rice, peanuts, crisp potato noodles and fried tortilla strips garnished with fried cubes of paneer (a delicate cheese that’s a staple in Indian delicacies), chopped onions and bell peppers. I can think about college students consuming bowls of this whereas learning. I can actually think about myself consuming mass portions whereas doing nothing.
The Sloppy Joe Akash is Naantheless’ tackle the messy sandwich — although it’s not as laborious to eat — with spicy potato filling, onions and crisp potato noodles on a hamburger bun. A hearty deal with.
We additionally favored our paneer wrap — flaky dough crammed with onions, bell peppers and paneer cheese– and a “Naan-traditional pizza” with a tomato sauce and cheese spiked with Indian spices on naan bread.
Naantheless is poised to be a success with faculty college students however I feel it is going to be a success with all ages.
“It’s a really totally different expertise,” stated Gupta.
Whenever you go …
Naantheless is at 2020 Pensacola St. , Suite 220. Hours are 11 a.m. to three p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday.
