We recently connected with Lokesh Vale and have shared our conversation below.

Lokesh , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

Most of the people wanting to eat during the same hours make staffing a challenge. If it was more evenly spread out, less staff could handle more people, thus increasing profitability and wages.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I have been in the business since I was 16 years of age, I got my bachelor’s in Hospitality and an associates in Culinary arts. After working with the Four Seasons for about 4 years in Mumbai and DC, I decided to open a food truck in Tampa. After the initial success, of my first food truck “The Twisted Iron”, I decided to open
” The Twisted Indian” as a second venture.

Indian food was not as popular as it is today in 2016, but we kept going, and eventually got into the Saturday Morning Market in St Petersburg. This was where we got most of our recognition and got us to where we are!

The whole idea behind The Twisted Indian was to make Indian food more approachable. We wanted to make Indian food a daily lunch/ dinner choice rather than an occasional thought. The menu is designed to do just that, Americanize Indian food to match the palates of the locals! We have bowls, burritos, we call them “Curritos”, tacos, and so on with Indian food as a filling.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Though social media brings more people in, word of mouth is what keeps people coming back, and creates regulars. We do offer loyalty programs for all our customers to appreciate them and give back.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Yes, the St Pete Chamber of commerce runs an entrepreneurship program that really helped me, apart from that, reading “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, and “The E-myth” by Michael Gerber have really influenced me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thetwistedindian.com
• Instagram: @thetwistedindian
• Facebook: @thetwistedindian