Curry Up Now is the original Indian street food restaurant, founded by husband and wife Akash and Rana Kapoor and officially launched on September 26, 2009 in Burlingame, California. The story started a few months earlier, with an email from a friend.
In April 2009, Akash got an email from his good friend Barbara Kim. Barbara, who grew up alongside chef Roy Choi in the Korean community of Southern California, had just read a magazine feature about Roy and his then new venture Kogi BBQ, the Korean taco truck that was reinventing Los Angeles street food one tweet at a time. Barbara sent the article to Akash with a simple message. He should do this for Indian food. The idea took root immediately.
One summer evening in 2009, what started as casual drinks with friends turned into the first Curry Up Now research and development session. Around the kitchen, Akash and Rana started reimagining the Indian food they grew up on through a California lens. What if a burrito were stuffed with tikka masala instead of carnitas? What if a samosa were broken open and rebuilt as something you ate with a fork? What if naan became a wrap? By the end of the night, the foundation of the Curry Up Now menu existed. Many of those dishes are still on the menu today.
Before Curry Up Now had a truck, a name, or a single paying customer, it had a daughter. Akash and Rana wanted to do something special for their daughter Aanvi's 5th birthday, so they rented a food truck called Kung Fu Tacos and served 200 guests the same dishes that had been born around their kitchen that summer night. The food disappeared. The guests kept asking when the next one was. Two weeks later, Akash and Rana drove to Stockton, California and bought a food truck of their own.
Curry Up Now's first official day of service was September 26, 2009, a date Akash chose because it was his father's birthday. The truck parked at the corner of Howard and Primrose in Burlingame and started serving Indian street food to anyone willing to try it. People were willing. The line built. The story began.
What started as one truck on a Burlingame street corner has grown into one of the largest Indian street food brands in the United States, with locations across California, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Alabama, and new openings planned for Smyrna, Tennessee and Seattle, Washington. Every dish we serve is made with halal meat, hand prepared in our kitchens, and built on a simple idea. Indian food does not have to be slow, formal, or fussy. It can be fast, bold, and built for the way Californians actually eat.
Akash and Rana grew up on the flavors of India and came of age in the Bay Area. Curry Up Now is the food they wanted to eat and could not find. Naan that doubles as a wrap. Tikka masala folded into a burrito. Samosas deconstructed into something you eat with a fork. Fried chicken sandos brined in spices their grandmothers used. We did not invent Indian street food. We made it Californian.
Today, Curry Up Now serves guests at over a dozen locations, fuels weddings and corporate events through our catering program, and continues to grow through both corporate and franchise partnerships. Akash and Rana also founded Khaki Bar and Indian Canteen in San Ramon, California, a Michelin recognized modern Indian fine dining concept that represents the next evolution of their culinary vision.
Food should taste like where it came from and where it grew up. Service should feel like a friend made you dinner. Every guest should leave full, happy, and a little bit hooked. That is the Curry Up Now way.
Come hungry. Leave happy.