BBQ Rush might be the only restaurant in Tucson where you can order spicy ground beef samosas to go with your barbecue brisket plate.
The brick-and-mortar eatery at the Lazydays KOA RV resort, 5151 S. Country Club Road, has all the usual suspects that youโd find at a traditional barbecue joint: St. Louis-style ribs with meat that falls off the bone; a smoked sausage meal with baked beans and coleslaw; chicken wings dished out with your choice of dipping sauces.
โDelicious barbecue begins with only the finest ingredients,โ the restaurantโs website proudly proclaims.
In recent weeks, owner Jason Scott has added a second menu of Indian dishes to BBQ Rushโs list of offerings, one that includes tandoori chicken, beef and vegan samosas and paneer tikka masala.
The new options are the result of a collaboration between Scott and Roop Singh, owner of the Twisted Tandoor brand in Tucson.
โIt sounds weird, but it works,โ Scott said. โThere are a surprising amount of similarities between the two. They are both super-savory types of food.โ
Mixing barbecue and Indian cuisine was an idea born from friendship.
Scott and Singh have known each other for years.
Scott met Roop Singh and Roopโs late husband, Mukhi Singh, when BBQ Rush and Twisted Tandoor were both food trucks.
Mukhi Singh, a well-liked and well-respected member of the food truck community, moved to Tucson with his family from California in 2001. They launched the Twisted Tandoor in 2012.
โWe all looked up to Mukhi,โ Scott said. โHe was like my mentor. He would give us all advice. Heโd tell us we needed to find two spots a day, one for lunch and for dinner, and shoot for $1,000-$1,500 every night.โ
Tragedy struck when Mukhi Singh died from a heart attack in 2015, hours before the Singhs were set to open their own brick-and-mortar restaurant on East Limberlost Drive.
Roop Singh has dabbled in bringing the Twisted Tandoor back in the years since, as a food truck, a catering business and as a short-lived collaboration with JAM Culinary Concepts, the company behind area restaurants Vero Amore and Noble Hops.
She had been using BBQ Rushโs kitchen as a commissary for catering gigs for several months when Scott asked if sheโd like to sell her food in-house.
Scott said Mukhi Singh was the inspiration.
โHe always wanted to mix barbecue and Indian food,โ Scott said. โHe used to collaborate with another barbecue food truck, do Indian food at that ownerโs restaurant in Pinetop. I was going to start showing him how to smoke certain meats before he died.โ
For Roop Singh, the decision was easy.
โThere is no stress working with Jason,โ she said. โIt is always easier having a partner than trying to do everything on your own.โ
Scott invested more than $11,000 in a new kitchen line for Roop Singh, where she can, among other culinary pursuits, make the sauce for the tikka masala and beef stuffing for the samosas.
Singh has trained Scottโs kitchen staff to assemble the plates using her prepared ingredients.
โIt is cooked the way I would eat it,โ she said. โI donโt like to take shortcuts.โ
Scott said the collaboration has been beneficial for both parties from the get-go.
โRoop has 5,000 followers on Facebook,โ he said. โWhen she posted she was making her food here, people started coming. Customers are traveling from the north side of Tucson to have Indian food. Then they come back next week and have barbecue.โ
Singh said the differences in cuisine also benefit the people who stay at the RV resort.
BBQ Rush is open to the public, but many of the customers are from the park, Scott said. Most swing through the restaurant in the early evening, from 5 to 8 p.m.
โI donโt think they want to eat barbecue twice a day, every day,โ Singh said. โIt is nice for them to have a variety, so they donโt have to venture out.โ
Plus, Scott said, Singhโs vegan options, the chana masala and a peas-and-potatoes samosa dish, serve a previously untapped audience for BBQ Rush.
โAs a barbecue restaurant, we donโt generally cater to that crowd,โ he said.
Scott said once Singh is completely settled, heโd like to start working on fusing more Indian, barbecue and Mexican dishes, with items like chicken tikka burros and tacos.
The two have discussed possibly opening a second location in midtown Tucson where they can create a full fusion menu.
โWhenever Roop is here, all the kitchen staff does is eat,โ Scott said. โShe is always trying out new things on us.โ
