Regina Pradam

So it's Tarka Indian Kitchen.

We started our first one in 2009 when the economy was in the dumps.

Not a good time.

No, not a good time.

Did it anyway, and it worked out really well.

Fast forward to 16, we have five units right now.

And in the next two years to two and a half, we're planning to double our units between Houston, Austin, and San Antonio.

very good so you'll have 10 locations ideally in the next what two three 24 months or so 24 months okay very good so how did you get into the 2009 is when you got into the business what were you doing before that um no 2009 is when we opened tarka okay um we opened clay pit which is downtown in 98. okay um how i got in the business is uh

Oh, they're both Indian.

Clay Pit is a fine dining restaurant.

It's housed in a 160, 170-year-old building.

Tarka is a quick, casual version of Indian restaurant.

So we kind of like looked at Pei Wei and said, hey, you know, if...

Pei Wei does this for Chinese and bring it mainstream.

We wanna do that for Indian food.

So it's not Chipotle style where you have food already sitting out there and they scoop it out.

We actually cook it once order comes in.

So it's cooked to order, but it is quite casual.

Well, owning one, you know, I waited tables.

And sort of managed.