Suraj Aryal is bringing the spice back to a vacant Sunnyside restaurant property.
“It’s not easy at the moment,” he said of the current restaurant environment.
The 38-year-old restaurateur hopes to open the third location of his Indian and Nepali restaurant Spice Kitchen at 2915 W. 44th Ave. later this summer. Aryal purchased the 5,700-square-foot building, formerly home to the Sunnyside Supper Club, an Italian joint, for $2 million last week, records show.
Interest rates, labor costs and food prices have squeezed his margins at Spice Kitchen’s existing Thornton and Parker locations, Aryal said — but he’s not too worried about it.
“I like a good challenge,” he said.
His new building was sold by Mighty Hospitality Group, a restaurant group run by Brendan McManus and James Samara that operates other eateries, including Lucky Pie Pizza in Louisville and El Jefe in Denver.
The two, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, opened Sunnyside Supper Club after buying the building for $3.1 million in October 2021. But they closed it last fall as their lender initiated foreclosure on the property. Not a penny of the $2.55 million note had been paid off.
Before Sunnyside Supper Club, the building was home to the short-lived Earnest Hall, which opened weeks before the pandemic.
Aryal was looking at expansion opportunities in the area when he saw the listing, but initially considered the price, about $2.8 million, to be too high. However, he said the sellers were amenable to negotiation, and he was able to get the property at a discounted price.
Property records show that he took out a $2.1 million loan on the property from Huntington National Bank, with a maturity date in 2050.
Aryal said that the lender asked him how he would succeed in a space that has been inhospitable for restaurants recently. He responded that the lower cost of the real estate and the lack of any major renovations will allow him to keep his debt and expenses under control.
The restaurateur started the first Spice Kitchen in Parker seven years ago and opened his second spot, in Thornton, at the start of last year. Both are doing well, raking in over $1 million in yearly revenue each, he said. But Aryal noted that costs last year increased by about 15% across the board.
It’s a family operation, supported by his father’s recipes and decadeslong work as a chef, making curries, masalas and vindaloos. Aryal came to Denver in 2005 for school, and pivoted to the restaurant industry after a career in IT.
“Everything is made from scratch, organic, nothing is canned or premade,” he said.
This story was originally published by BusinessDen.
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