Valley's first East Indian restaurant keeping tables full

When longtime friends Eric Young and Olivia Stark considered opening the first East Indian restaurant in the Flathead Valley, they were venturing into unknown territory.

"We had to balance two questions in doing something that had never been done," Young said. "Was the reason because it was sure to fail, or just that it had never been tried?"

So far, the pair have found that the latter theory is the likely answer. Young and Stark opened Tandoor in Whitefish on Oct. 14 and the tables have been filled regularly since.

"Three months into it, I think we've proved it can work," Young said. "In the realm of restaurants, this has been a solid financial endeavor."

Tandoor is located at 235 Baker Ave., filling the space last occupied by Dancing Bear Bakery and Moon-Thyme Cafe. While the spacious kitchen was already well designed for their needs, Young and Stark worked hard to turn the 32-seat dining area into an atmosphere that matched the cuisine.

The heavy front door is laced with copper, walls painted a soft gold are accented with large photos of Indian life, and red lamps hang over the tables. A colorful mural of a contemporary Indian street scene, with depictions of more traditional Indian-style architecture in the background, fills the back wall of the dining area.

The scene is meant to be a reflection of the restaurant's menu, a mix of the old and new.

"We want to introduce people to the contemporary foods of India," Young said. "There are old standards, but there is some great new Indian food. Like the street food - our appetizers are the things sold on the street."

Tandoor's menu is also novel in that it is created "European style," with each week's choices centering on a different region of India. Each menu offers two choices for the diner - a full menu, with papadums (a crispy snack served with chutney), appetizer, choice of entree, choice of dessert and tea or coffee, or a smaller meal consisting of the papadums and the entree.

One week's menu featured the "Melting Pot of Gujarat," focusing on India's northwest coast. The four entree selections included Parsi Chicken with Organic Turkish Apricots, Sarka Dhhal (a red lentil dish), Patia Seafood Curry and Sambhar Vegetables.

"Since Indian food is not as common, we didn't want to develop a menu with a vast amount of options," Stark said. "This is a less intimidating format. The first time I ate at an Indian restaurant, I had to have a friend choose for me."

An autumn excursion through India helped Stark and Young become more intimate with the specifics of Indian food. They also brought back some of the items used in the restaurant - the textiles hung throughout the dining room and the katooris, small copper pots in which each entree is served.

As the spices are the defining element of an Indian meal, Tandoor imports many of its spices directly from India through a distributor in Illinois. The staples - cumin, coriander, pepper, ginger and garlic - are readily available locally, but some, like black mustard seeds and pomegranate seeds, come directly from India.

Their specialty oven - a tandoor - didn't come from India, but its prototype is the large tandoor oven that stands in the middle of many Indian villages. The English-made clay oven, which reaches temperatures of 800 degrees Fahrenheit, has a barrel-shaped interior heated with gas. It is used to cook meats on a skewer and to bake the naan, a traditional bread served with every meal at the restaurant.

Montana's only other Indian restaurant - Tipu's Tiger in Missoula - doesn't have a tandoor oven, so Stark and Young figure they probably have the only one in the state. Though the Tipu's Tiger menu is different - focusing on vegetarian cuisine - owner Bipin Patel has been a real source of support for their endeavors, Stark said.

Unlike Patel, whose ethnicity is Indian, Young has no Indian heritage to draw on in the kitchen. But he can't see that it makes a difference.

"People think you should be Indian if you're the chef, but they've never thought French chefs have to be from France," he said.

Young, who moved to the Flathead Valley from Seattle three years ago, has a vast background in international eating, he pointed out. He spent years with the U.S. State Department, working in embassies in south and east Africa, where there is an abundance of Indian food. He occasionally cooked for embassy dinner parties and in August was asked to travel to Guinea in West Africa, where he taught a class of 35 ambassadors the art of Indian cooking.

Stark, who works as host and server when the restaurant is open, had some experience in the restaurant business after working for Montana Coffee Traders for 14 years. Her management skills went a long way toward getting the restaurant up and running.

Stark and Young opened Tandoor two nights a week at first, to make sure that they could maintain consistency and quality without being overwhelmed by the demands of a new enterprise.

"So much of the restaurant business is based on word of mouth, that if any little thing is not 100 percent, people will comment," Young said.

When they added two more nights last month to reach their current Wednesday through Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m. schedule, they were responding to customer demand.

"People wanted us open more," Stark said.

Even with the limited hours, Stark and Young spend six days a week working in the restaurant. Their main goal is to ensure that diners can count on the food and service every night.

"That's where all the hard work is, is keeping things predictable for the guests," Stark said. "Because life isn't set up to stay the same."

A veteran crew of employees has made a big difference, as Young said he has found that there is a strong corps of experienced restaurant workers in the valley.

"We did as much as we could by ourselves," Stark added, "but we are so grateful for who we hired."

They tried to find people who have traveled or have knowledge of India who can help explain the cuisine to the diners. For many of the customers, their first visit to Tandoor is their introduction to Indian food.

There are a few things to remember, Young said, for those who might be wary of the cuisine. Authentic Indian food doesn't contain any of the curry powder found on the shelves of American grocery stores, and there are endless alternatives to the fiery Indian dishes that might scare less adventurous diners.

"For people who haven't ventured out of steak and potatoes, they'll be surprised," Stark said.

For more information, call 862-5490.

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com