Owners of a Bellevue Quiznos are serving native Indian flavors with a twist

At lunchtime, the Bellevue Quiznos fills up with office workers dressed in business casual, looking to grab a quick lunch. But the owners of this franchise, Amir Bahandari and Nipun Prashar, who are originally from India, noticed that a lot of their customers are as well.

“Especially with Microsoft next door to us,” says Amir.

So they started to think, what about an Indian sandwich? McDonald’s in India sells sandwiches with Indian spice.

“I already had a recipe in my head. I shared with Quiznos and I was grateful. They said, ‘OK, let’s try it and see how you do.’ We only launched it about a month and a half ago. Numbers are numbers. Yesterday, 20-40 percent of the sandwiches overall made in the store were those, which is very huge. We don’t have any other sandwiches like that,” says Nipun.

This is very, very rare. A chain like Quiznos doesn’t usually let franchise owners create their own menu items, especially a sandwich that uses ingredients from foreign grocery stores.

“This particular kind is a vegetarian sandwich,” says Nipun, giving me a sample. “It’s called paneer tikka. It’s an Indian cheese mixed with a bunch of spices. Hopefully you like spicy.”

It’s pretty spicy, but also sweet and savory all at once.

“It gets tamarind chutney, it gets green chile chutney and cilantro.”

Which is why Indians with homesick palates, like Shy Gounder, keep coming back for more.

“For the paneer, I come here like at least two times or three times a week. The good thing is, it’s like a fusion. So it’s good to come grab ‘n go. I’m in IT so just grabbin’ and go is the best option.”

Fusion is key. Sunset Magazine’s food editor, Margo True, wrote an expansive article about the growing trend of modern, fusion Indian chaat (a type of Indian snacks) on the West Coast. Restaurants in San Francisco, LA, and Portland are now serving Indian spiced burritos and poutine.

“The trend is using traditional Indian street snacks and then modernizing using fresh ingredients that are here in the West,” says Margo. “Kind of blending them with other food ideas like the Curry Up Now people. They kind of do it up like frat boy food. The Sexy Fries, which are my favorite, are sweet potato fries covered in gooey, gloppy cheese and chicken tikka masala. The whole thing is just drippy and wonderful.”

Customer Ben Shariati says the Quiznos sandwich tastes like home. He drove into Bellevue just to try it.

“Food is very important for Indians. It’s a taste, you know, that you grew up with. It’s something that you’re used to for a long time and when you move out, you don’t have it. And you look for it to just get your memories back.”

There is talk of Indian being the next big fusion trend, like the Korean taco trend started in Los Angeles by Roy Choy. Nipun thinks Americans will love the flavors and so far, at the Bellevue Quiznos, even non-Indians, like Jeff Buchanan, really do.

“I actually don’t like a lot of spicy stuff, but this tastes really good. I’m a creature of habit. I usually get the chicken honey mustard sandwich, just on wheat bread. But now, I try to be a little bit more adventurous.”