The Twisted Tandoor will close for good on Nov. 22.
JAM Culinary Concepts, parent to longtime Neopolitan pizzeria Vero Amore and the Oro Valley gastropub Noble Hops, started the year announcing the openings of two new concepts: authentic New Orleans-inspired Sazerac Creole Kitchen & Cocktails in St. Philip’s Plaza, 4280 N. Campbell Ave.; and the Indian eatery Twisted Tandoor at 4660 E. Camp Lowell Drive, a partnership with Roop Singh.
At year’s end came the separate announcements, weeks apart, that both restaurants would not be around come the new year.
Twisted Tandoor was the first casualty in mid-November, less than four months after it opened. The restaurant was expected to open in early 2017 but the date was pushed back after one of the owners, Joshua Mussman, fell off a 12-foot ladder while repairing the roof and broke both his legs on the eve of Sazerac’s opening. Mussman owns JAM with his brother Aric and mother, Suzanne Kaiser.
Kaiser said they will revisit Indian cuisine under a new operator early this year. Meanwhile, partner Singh, whose late husband’s popular Twisted Tandoor Indian food truck inspired the restaurant, resumed the food truck operation.
Days before Christmas, JAM announced it was turning the lease for Sazerac over to the operators of the St. Philip’s Plaza gastropub Union Public House. No word yet on what the pair, Grant Krueger and Steve Stratigouleas, will do with the 3,000-square-foot spot, which is across the courtyard from the popular Union Public House and the pair’s other St. Philip’s operation, Reforma, a modern Mexican restaurant.
