The once popular Indian food truck The Twisted Tandoor has joined Tucson restaurant group Jam Culinary Concepts, parent of Vero Amore and Noble Hops, and will soon have its own brick-and-mortar restaurant.
Plans aren’t finalized, but the restaurant is expected to open in midtown in late August or early September, said Suzanne Kaiser, an owner and partner in Jam with her sons Joshua and Aric Mussman.
Kaiser said the partnership comes two years after the company started working with Twisted Tandoor’s owners Roop and Mukhi Singh, who started the food truck in 2012. The Singhs were in the process of opening a temporary restaurant in summer 2015 when Mukhi Singh died of an apparent heart attack. He was 52.
Soon after joining forces in February, Vero Amore, the Mussman brothers’ Neapolitan pizzeria, started serving Indian style pizzas based on Roop Singh’s recipes. Singh described the pizzas as being similar to serving her savory chicken tikka masala on classic Indian naan.
Singh said the restaurant, to be called The Twisted Tandoor, will feature many of the popular dishes they served on the food truck among an expanded menu of Indian dishes, all using her recipes. The menu also could have Indian pizzas and sandwiches.
She said she will not be the chef in the kitchen — that was her husband’s job during their food truck days — but she will follow her late husband’s food philosophy: “The most important thing will be that people like the food,” she said.
“It’s big shoes to step into when it comes to people’s expectations, when it comes to the reputation of The Twisted Tandoor,” she said. “(But) it will be fun, I’m sure.”
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Meanwhile, the Mussman brothers are in Salt Lake City this week working on renovations of a bar they bought in late December, Kaiser said. The bar, called Tinwell, is located in Salt Lake City’s bustling and thriving downtown area.
Kaiser said Tinwell will serve a limited food menu, but its main focus will be to serve alcohol.
“It’s a great old building from 1945 with tall ceilings and wood floors. It’s going to be wonderful,” said Kaiser, who said the bar is open three nights a week while they completely renovate the space. “We bought a dive bar and we thought we were going to make it into a restaurant, as well, but at this point it’s great as bar.”
Kaiser said they bought the building in December after the brothers fell in love with Salt Lake City during a visit for a family wedding. The building came with a liquor license, which was key; Utah law makes it hard to acquire a liquor license in a process that often takes at least a year, she said.
Jam has two locations of its Neapolitan pizzeria Vero Amore: 2920 N. Swan Road and 12130 N. Dove Mountain Blvd. in Marana. It also owns Noble Hops Craft Beer + Fine Fare at 1335 W. Lambert Lane in Oro Valley.
