GOING MOBILE: KURRY UP! REPLACES GLORY OF INDIA
Huge mobile kitchen provides more room for chefs, lower prices for customers
Calgary’s restaurant industry continues its flux of changes. In recent weeks we’ve seen the closure of Catch’s upstairs dining room and Gunther’s Fine Baking, the retirement of the principals behind Da Guido and Sushi Bar Miki, changes in concept at Black Pig Bistro (now Bridges on First), Chef’s Table (now Oxbow) and Parc Bistro (still waiting on this one), relocations for Mango Shiva and Tu Tierra and a changing of the guard at The Block.
And downtown, Glory of India, a mainstay for 15 years, has closed.
Jassie Bakshi, owner of the fine Indian restaurant, saw a downturn over the past three years with revenues sliding as much as 65 per cent. At the same time labour costs, groceries and rent all increased. His once-busy restaurant — Bakshi says he was offered a million dollars for it a few years ago — became untenable so he handed the keys over to his landlord and walked away. (It’s now another Indian restaurant called Ganga.)
Or perhaps drove away would be a better description. Because Bakshi, the Indianand CIA-trained chef, formerly an international training chef with Hyatt, is not a man without plans. Always positive, he’s moved on to his next venture — Kurry Up!— a giant food truck serving almost the same menu as Glory of India. Only much cheaper. Dishes that were $17 at the restaurant are now $13, some that were $10 are now $6. And there’s a daily special for $8. Granted, they come in takeout containers with plastic forks and paper napkins but the price is now much more attractive.
Prices are lower because overhead is so much cheaper. Kurry Up! is a three-man operation with son Sunny and former Glory of India executive chef Gary Singh joining Bakshi in the mobile kitchen. A friend has given Bakshi a sweet deal on rent at an empty lot on the corner of Edmonton Trail and 21st Avenue N.E.
As for the truck itself, Bakshi uses a 2000 GMC c6500 beast fully outfitted with a kitchen larger than the one in his former restaurant. Outfitted by Showtime Fabrication, the Kurry Up! truck has a six-burner propane stove, a large deep fryer, coolers, a freezer, a cold table, a flat-top grill, a stockpot burner, a dish pit and a full-sized tandoor oven. All the comforts of an Indian restaurant’s kitchen, all cloaked in stainless steel. They’ve already easily done a catering event for 100 people. Bakshi calls Kurry Up! more of a mobile restaurant than a food truck. And with 65 items on the menu, it’s easy to see why.
Kurry Up! is open Monday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Order on the spot or call ahead at 403-351-7900 or at kurryup.ca. Note: Kurry Up! is mobile so they may appear in other locations around town, too.
RESTAURANTS RELOCATE TO CITY MARKETS
Bakshi is not alone in abandoning a bricks-and-mortar operation for an alternative location. Calgary’s farmers’ markets — Calgary Farmers’ Market (CFM), Crossroads Market (CM), Market on Macleod (MM) and Symons Valley Ranch Farmers Market (SVR) — have become hot spots for businesses looking for a simpler format with higher traffic.
Five years ago, Lillian and Armando Ortiz closed their popular Paloma restaurant and shifted to Crossroads. They had run Paloma in Whitehorn for eight years and Paloma Steak House in Varsity for 15 years before that.
The Ortiz’ Crossroads locations are called Molcajete (403616-4710), after the stone-grinding bowls used in Mexico. One of their outlets features foods to eat on the spot — tortas, tacos, quesadillas, chilequiles, pozole — and the other sells Latin American foods and ingredients to take home. So you can stock up on fresh-made salsas — up to 45 varieties — and tortillas, as well as house-made taco chips (from the tortillas) all made on site. Molcajete also supplies local stores such as Amaranth and Sunnyside Market.
Lillian and Armando Ortiz are enjoying the shorter hours (Crossroads is open Friday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and the streamlined process of working in a market. Instead of paying bills for each utility and for marketing and such, they now just pay one bill to Crossroads, greatly simplifying things.
Margaret Nemeth of Primal Grounds, who sold her coffee shop five years ago and moved her Primal Soup operation into Market on Macleod, echoes the Ortiz’ comments. The constant traffic to her MM location has allowed her to open a second and third location — one for soup, one for coffee — in Crossroads.
And the fire that destroyed Billingsgate Market has created a silver lining for owner Brian Falwell. Without a shop of its own for the first time since 1907, Billingsgate moved into Community Natural Foods at 1304 10th Ave. S.W. and Market on Macleod. Things have worked out so well, Falwell has opened a third location in Crossroads.
“Now I have one shop open (Community) early in the week and when things are busier late in the week I have three,” says Falwell. Fewer staff, lower overheads and just one big bill to pay instead of many appeal to Falwell, too.
Brian and Mary Plunkett are another example of markets-based operations. Two of Calgary’s favourite fish mongers, the Plunketts left their Macleod Trail shop behind when their Market Seafood shop at CFM took off. The high traffic that the market brings past their shop — over a million visitors each year — is a godsend to their business. Plus they don’t have to work every day of the week.
So food purveyors of all kinds are showing resilience and creativity in their approach to the market. And it’s working.
Speaking of resilience, Symons Valley Ranch will be open — in the parking lot — every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. from this weekend through the fall as they rebuild from a devastating fire a few months ago.