By Serin Sarsour
Not many people in their 20s can say that they own and manage a restaurant all while working on obtaining a college degree. For Brooklyn College senior Tawhid Elahi, however, he is doing just that. His restaurant, Curry In Handi, offers authentic Indian cuisine with a typically unheard-of component: a halal bar.
“Owning a business is definitely something I’ve always wanted to do, but I didn’t think it would actually happen this early on in my life,” Elahi told The Vanguard.
Elahi’s initial vision of owning a restaurant ensued this past summer when his brother and brother-in-law offered him the opportunity to join their team and help build the restaurant from the ground up. The 20-year-old was eager to take part in the endeavor and instantly began developing different ideas on how they could make the restaurant as successful as possible, which is where the concept of a halal bar came into play. “Halal” is the Arabic word for “permissible.” Consuming alcohol is not allowed in several religions, including Islam, and some people would rather opt for an alcohol-free option.
“I was thinking, you know, people want to do stuff like pop a bottle of champagne at a wedding or party or drink a glass of wine to feel elegant, but they don’t want to bring alcohol into the mix,” said Elahi. “So I wanted to bring a new thing that most people haven’t heard of and create a halal bar that has drinks that mimic alcoholic drinks but don’t actually have any alcohol in them.”
Curry In Handi partners up with a company called Halal Wine Cellar to stock their shelves with bottles of non-alcoholic wine. There are a variety of wines available at the restaurant; some of the bottles originally contained alcohol, but were chemically fermented out in order to eliminate the presence of alcohol in the beverages. Other bottles are organic and are not made with any alcohol at all.
Apart from wine and champagne, the restaurant also offers fun, classic drinks on the menu like mojitos, piña coladas, and blue lagoon cocktails. The restaurateur even uses dry ice to jazz up the drinks and give them a fog and smoking effect. As a Muslim, it is important to Elahi that he gives fellow Muslims a chance to have fun and drink with their friends in a way that doesn’t compromise their values or religion.
“Our drinks have 0.0 percent of alcohol in them. A lot of places illegally show zero percent presence of alcohol in their drinks, but they actually have like 0.025 or 0.05 percent of alcohol in them,” Elahi said. “The halal bar is definitely one of my favorite parts of the restaurant because I think it’s the first restaurant to explicitly display a halal bar in the U.S., and that’s really cool.”
In the heart of Bushwick, Elahi’s restaurant has all things Indian food, from chicken tikka masala to lamb biryani to naan bread. One of Elahi’s main goals is to celebrate the Indian culture inside his restaurant. Other than the large spread of Indian cuisine present at the restaurant, Indian music plays in the background as guests enjoy their meals.
Although the restaurant has seen great success after only having been open for four months now, Elahi and his partners faced struggles along the way. “I’ve definitely faced a lot of financial and emotional stuff with the restaurant. Owning a restaurant is not cheap and we weren’t sure we were going to make much revenue right away,” Elahi said.
Another speed bump Elahi hit was when the construction team he was originally supposed to work with fell through, so he had to find another team on short notice.
Balancing school while owning and managing a business is also not an easy task. Elahi explained that the key is compartmentalizing and making school and work priorities on different days; he scheduled and attends his classes at BC twice a week, leaving the rest of the week open for him to look after the restaurant and enjoy some free time.
“It is hard to balance, but I think it’s possible,” said Elahi. “I love what I do so much that it doesn’t even feel like work sometimes. Like the other day, I went to do something at the store and I ended up working a whole shift.” He highlighted that when you invest your own money into something, you always want to give it your all.
Elahi emphasized that the use of Instagram and other social media platforms is imperative to getting the word out there about the restaurant. He noted that utilizing the halal bar as the restaurant’s angle and making it “Instagrammable” has paid off since most people have never even thought about the possibility of a halal bar. The restaurant’s posts and videos have gotten many views and likes, along with many others posting about their trips to the restaurant. Several popular accounts have also posted about Curry In Handi on their social media, such as @muslimfoodies and @thehalalguys on Instagram.
When he graduates from BC at the end of this fall semester, Elahi wants to focus on getting into real estate investment, along with continuing to invest time into Curry In Handi.
“My goal is to make sure all our guests are actually happy and are smiling when they leave our restaurant,” Elahi said.