Who cares if it’s cold? Die-hards wait overnight for Choolaah
If it is a free meal, they will come.
About 25 people braved temperatures in the low 20s on Thursday night into Friday morning to camp outside Choolaah in East Liberty to get tickets for free full meals for an entire year.
As part of its opening festivities, the fast-casual Indian barbecue restaurant, which opened its doors at 11 a.m. Friday, was giving 52 free meals and a free T-shirt that says: “Froze my keister [translates to butt in Hindi] off & got a free Choolaah for a year” to the first 100 in line.
Choolaah also rewarded 10 “alternates” waiting in line, each with 10 free entree cards, a PopSocket and the T-shirt. Also, there was going to be a henna artist at the restaurant either on Saturday or Sunday.
The menu includes chicken, lamb, salmon and Amish-made
paneer in barbecues and salads; chicken biryani and vegetable biryani; roasted cauliflower and chickpea wrap; and snacks such as samosa, chaat and pav bhaji. Beverage choices include mint-ginger lemonade, chai and lassi.
Sara Tyberg and Naomi Morris, whoboth work for Repair the World in East Liberty, were the first ones in line. They arrived at 8:40 on Thursday night with sleeping bags, blankets and a tent. They said almost everybody at their workplace had been to the soft opening and were raving about the food. Because they could not make it to Choolaah with their co-workers and 52 free meals sounded great, they took the cold night in stride.
Choolaah, for its part, looked out for its die-hard fans, aka Choolaahheads. The restaurant had set up a tent with a heater, provided mats to sit on and offered chai, coffee and cookies on Thursday night and Friday morning.
Josh Pryor and Sam Houser, who were the third and fourth in line, said neither of them thought things through and came just wearing jackets and armed with 4 litres of coffee. “If people can stand in line for an iPhone, we thought we could do it for free meals,” Mr. Houser said, laughing.
At 9:30 p.m., Sean Hensley was the 12th Choolaah-head and brought along his absolute necessities — a sleeping bag, a phone charger, a chair and a 12-pack of Mountain Dew. After picking up his tickets, he said he was skipping work and “definitely taking a vacation day.”
The 99th person was Jai Ghose. “I’m Indian and looking forward to
eating to my heart’s content,” he said.
On Friday at 9:40 a.m., Nicole Adams was the 100th guest to snag the gold tickets for a full meal and beverage. She would have been a few people ahead as she had arrived a good 10 minutes earlier but didn’t realize she had to go into the restaurant to give her name. But it was all good for the part-time worker who found out about the promotion on Facebook. “I was pretty lucky,” she said. “The timing was perfect.”
Instead of the traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony, co-founder and co-CEO Raji Sankar said Choolaah was opening its doors with a giant naan that guests could tear into. The restaurant will be donating 30 percent of its earnings during its first 30 days to local nonprofits, and on Friday the proceeds were going to East EndCooperative Ministry.
“I went to Carnegie Mellon, and this has been my dream, to serve Pittsburgh,” she said.