Local entrepreneur to roll out fast-casual Indian restaurant
If you’ve been to a Pittsburgh Five Guys, you’ve crossed paths with the work of Raji Sankar.
She’s a partner in a handful of regional locations who is talking on Wednesday about the evolution of her work during “Tech to Tikka” — the latest in the Speak Freely series from Kit Mueller at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in East Liberty.
Ms. Sankar’s work with Five Guys is the foundation for her own brand. She and her business partner, Randhir Sethi, are gearing up to open in January the East Liberty location on Centre Avenue for their fast-casual restaurant, Choolaah, an Indian barbecue spot with locations in Northern Virginia, Cleveland and King of Prussia, Pa.
The duo didn’t start out with immediate success in the restaurant industry. They opened their first one on Murray Avenue back in 2004 — the pan-Asian noodle restaurant, Zyng Asian Grill — which closed by 2007.
Closing a restaurant was a painful lesson early in Ms. Sankar’s career, but one that ultimately helped her and her partner regroup by learning under the established Five Guys franchises. She now operates Five Guys locations in Fox Chapel, Oakland, Robinson, Bridgeville, Monroeville and Market Square, and more than a dozen beyond the area.
Having to rebound from failure has helped build their resilience.
“Anyone who is an aspiring entrepreneur knows about the importance of reinventing yourself,” says Ms. Sankar, who promises to speak candidly about her successes as well as her failures in the Speak Freely talk.
She points to Five Guys’ steady growth now with 1,400 stores around the world, and realized that for Choolaah to succeed, she needed to learn from a company that has steered the path before her.
Ms. Sankar — who graduated from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper
School of Business — began sketching out plans for Choolaah, named for a communal oven, back in 2003. Today, there are four locations where customers enter a bright, inviting spot with bold murals, LEED lighting and eco-friendly containers, used for serving Indian fare made with ingredients sourced conscientiously.
“Life’s too short to eat boring,” reads the website that touts “ingredients with a pedigree,” turning out dishes that are “4,000 years old and still fresh.”
The four sizable tandoor clay ovens housed in a glass room draw attention to where food is prepared, as staff turns out menu items like biryani studded with chicken from Bell & Evans, along with variations on tikka masala, salads that include paneer cheese made at an Amish farm in Ohio, as well as tandoori wraps, samosas, chaats and naan.
The founder of branding company Wall-to-Wall Studios, Jay Nesbitt, is the chief creative officer for the group that is under the Wholesome International umbrella, a restaurant development companyheadquartered locally.
Free tickets for Wednesday’s talk can be reserved via Eventbrite. The doors open at 5:30 p.m., with refreshments served at 5:45 p.m. The talk is scheduled to start just after 6 p.m.