DELAWARE — Another new restaurant will call downtown Delaware home later this month.
Sip and Spice Indian Bar and Grill will join other new neighbors Betty’s Cupcakes and Dumpling Station on South Sandusky Street.
The new Indian cuisine restaurant is slated to open at the end of July, and will be open for lunch and dinner six days a week. The hours will be 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch and 5-9:30 p.m. for dinner on Mondays and Wednesdays- Saturdays.
On Sundays the restaurant will be open from noon to 8 p.m. and it will be closed on Tuesdays.
A new business, but not new to Delaware
Owners Sid Tiwari and Raj Sabherwal have been in the food industry together for 10 years as co-owners of the food truck Two Fatt Indians.
They used to bring the truck to Delaware twice monthly and would sell out of everything, Sabherwal said. That’s why they chose Delaware for their first and only brick-and-mortar location.
“We used to get sold out every time we were here, so we decided — because Delaware people like our food — to open a restaurant here in Delaware,” Sabherwal said.
Now that they have a physical restaurant, they will no longer operate the food truck.
Sabherwal (or as he prefers, Chef Raj) will head the kitchen. He brings over 25 years of experience in the restaurant industry, including as the longtime chef of Aab India Restaurant in Grandview Heights.
Tiwari will oversee the bar and front of the house. The two met while working at Aab and decided to start their own business together.
They decided not to carry over the name Two Fatt Indians, figuring a new restaurant deserved a new name. Sip and Spice felt like the perfect fit: sip for the cocktails, spice for the food.
But fret not, lovers of Two Fatt Indians — some of the menu items will be the same, including the saag paneer and chicken tikka masala.
There will also be vegetarian dishes, seafood entrees, lamb dishes and more. The menu spans six pages of dishes to try.
“We’re bringing mahi-mahi fish, we’re bringing lobster tail, we’re bringing lamb shank and lamb chops. And then chicken tikka masala and butter chicken, that’s very common — people love those,” Sabherwal said.
“We used to have like five, six items in food truck. But here we have a full large menu,” Tiwari added.
As for the drinks, Tiwari said you can expect to find all the classic cocktails, but there will be several speciality cocktails featuring Indian flavors.
He’s still working on the drinks menu, but diners will find drinks with mango, guava and jamun, which Tiwari described as similar to black cherry.
A dream 10 years in the making
Once the menu is finished, the duo just need approval of their licenses, their new sign to arrive and to put decorations on the wall. Then Sip and Spice will be ready to open.
They’re still hiring for servers, a bartender and kitchen staff. Anyone interested to apply can do so by emailing sipnspice33@gmail.com.
Even before opening, Tiwari and Sabherwal are already looking to add a lunch buffet in the future.
“This is a dream we have been working on for the last decade. We were serving Columbus and surrounding areas, and now we’ve come to Delaware. This is going to be our spot for forever,” Tiwari said.
