Sinclair is home to more than gasoline
It’s 6:30 p.m. on a Monday and the small parking lot is filling up.
Customers are walking past the five fuel pumps outside and the newspapers that line the front window.
They walk through the front doors and pass through the convenience store that sells everything from Oreos and ice cream to Pepsi and cigarettes.
It’s the smell of curry that draws them to the restaurant in the back of the store. There, they wait in line to be seated in the dim, twinkle-lit room that displays artificial flower arrangements on the walls and a picture of a monastery in Darjeeling.
They are hungry and have come to the Sinclair for a taste of India.
“How’s the food?” owner Sham Singh asks as a woman leaves with leftovers in hand.
“Excellent as always,” she replies and leaves with a smile, her red hair bouncing with her step.
Some passing by the Singhs’ family restaurant, Indian Oven, wouldn’t recognize its presence; it is disguised in the form of a gas station.
Fuel prices are displayed on a marquee, bagged ice is kept in an outdoor freezer and fluorescent beer signs illuminate the windows.
Even inside the Sinclair that is located on the corner of 700 East and 1000 North, the restaurant is hidden. It’s behind a convenience store with stacked cases of beer, a candy aisle and beverage coolers.
But the smell of curry and spices that streams into the noses of all who enter is a giveaway to the Indian Oven, an eatery that’s almost a secret, but not quite.
The restaurant is different than others. It’s small, quaint and quiet. It’s a place where the employees know the customers, the customers know the employees and where quality is more important than the bottom line.
“We never expect a gas station to have a restaurant,” Sham said. “But all people are really happy when they come in this place.”
Nancy Sassano, a regular of the Indian Oven, is one of those happy customers.
“I feel it was the one thing that was missing in Cache Valley,” she says as she holds a Busch Light box that is no longer filled with beer bottles, but her takeout food instead.
If a person could look at Sassano’s checkbook, she said it would be an instant giveaway of her passion for the restaurant’s food.
She frequents the place at least two or three times a week to pick up dinner for herself and her husband, who loves curry so much he said he would eat it every day of the week.
Tonight as she carries it away, Matt Singh, Sham’s 17-year-old son, tells her goodbye by name.
Matt works in the gas station and restaurant, as does the rest of his family. His mother, Nancy, is a clerk at the counter and greets everyone who walks in with her Indian accent. His uncle helps in the kitchen.
Matt’s 16-year-old brother is often at the restaurant as well, when he isn’t playing basketball for the high school team. Their younger sister, who is 10 years old, spends a lot of her time at the restaurant also. Matt said even other employees that are not blood-relatives are family to the Singhs.
“Working all together is fun,” Matt said. “It’s our nature. In India, the families all live together in big houses and get close to each other.”
Because the Singhs left all their relatives in India, Matt said they try to make family here from friends they meet. Tonight, Matt walks around the tables with a water pitcher in hand and, with a smile, refills people’s drinks.
He wears a striped red and white shirt and a black apron and will stop by anyone’s table if they want to talk. He takes their orders, brings their food and comes around frequently to make sure they are doing all right.
In nearby seats, Tim Vitale and his son-in-law Matt Thompson discuss how they need to remember the names of the employees at Indian Oven because the Singh family always seems to remember theirs.
“[Matt] and his brother are the nicest people,” Vitale said. “I’ve never met more kind people.”
Vitale and Thompson come to the Indian Oven often and enjoy trying the unique breads and dishes. Their wives are both vegetarians, but tonight, since neither one is present, the men are ordering meat. They ask about the lamb and chicken and Matt laughs as he tells them, “Everything is good.”
To the right is a buffet table where people can help themselves for $6.99 a plate. A blond woman with three blond children line up to try foods they’ve never seen before.
“How do I eat this?” she asks, and then dumps chicken tandorr on her pile of rice.
Others are getting up for seconds and Matt’s bearded uncle comes out of the kitchen to refill the rice.
Sham said everything is made fresh every day and they never use leftovers. He said he cares more about the customer than money.
“We spend not one penny on advertising,” he said. “It’s all mouth-to-mouth advertising.”
Sham said some businesses care more about the bottom line than quality.
At the Indian Oven, the Singhs believe they have to take care of their customers first and only then can they worry about themselves, he said.
The Singhs moved from India 10 years ago and have never been back.
Matt said the family moved so the children could have a good future.
They lived in Salt Lake City for a while and then were able to buy the Sinclair that already had a kitchen. He said they liked the location, so two years ago they opened their business.
“Everyone wants their own business,” Sham said. “I’m a professional cooker, you know. This place had a kitchen, so we thought we would try to make a restaurant. We cook everything. It’s a family business.”
Sham said he hopes to return to India someday, but he doesn’t know when.
“Everybody miss their native land,” he said. “That’s where your house is. That’s where your family is.”
For now, the Singhs say they will continue cooking their Indian dinners in the back of the Sinclair.
Sham said they are always busy. Sassano said she knows the Singhs are looking for a bigger place, but finding one is all about timing and location.
“Meanwhile, we’re happy,” she said. “No one’s complaining.”
Vitale said he thinks the restaurant is getting busier as well and that word gets around really quickly when food is good.
He said he likes the unique spices and the Indian Oven’s environment.
“The food is perfect. The food is great,” he said as he eats the Indian garlic bread that he ordered. “There’s some kind of atmosphere here that’s unexplainable. You have the wife at the counter and the son who, when we came, he knew us and shook our hands.”
Thompson said, “It’s family. It’s locally owned. You can go to a place like Chili’s and get the same thing everywhere. You can’t duplicate this place. Their food might even be family recipes. Plus, American food is boring.”
Vitale added, “You can always have another hamburger or another French fry. But when you come here and look at the menu and try their food, why would you ever want to eat at McDonald’s again?”
The restaurant will be busy tonight, all four tables full. Quiet conversation will continue beneath the sound the sound of Indian music.
Customers will come and sit in the dim room and for that moment, they will be surrounded by the pictures and people of India.
And when they leave, the smell of curry will be taken with them and the Singhs will know their names for the next time.
-mnewbold@cc.usu.edu
A typical meal at the Indian Oven
The Indian Oven restaurant is located inside the Sinclair gas station on the corner of 700 East and 1000 North in Logan. Prices range from$6.99 to $12.99 per plate with soup served for $1.99.