Hot Indian

Hot Indian – Quick Serve Indian Foodservice Concept

Rapids was involved with Hot Indian well before they decided to build out at the Skyway location at 8th Street in Minneapolis. By the time the location in the Skyway was leased, there had been 3 other iterations at different locations that didn’t pan out. This diligence on the part of Rapids and the determination on the part of the client was crucial to honing in on what equipment and design were truly necessary for the project, as Hot Indian was looking for a design and equipment that could be replicated across multiple formats.

Once the space was chosen, making sure that the necessary equipment was applicable in the space was a challenge. The first ductless fryer in Minneapolis was executed in this space due to the enormous cost ducting out of the building and into a garage would accumulate. This execution took coordination not only with the GC and Architect, but with the permitting officials for the city as well.  Health, Building, and Fire codes all had to be accommodated.

At this time during the project, Rapids was brought onto another site with Hot Indian, this time at the Mall of America. Hot Indian had been chosen to fill a location in their new food court.

Using the model from the Skyway location and existing equipment left in the space by the previous tenant, we were able quickly execute our drawings and turn around within the strict timeline that the MOA owners requested.  Given this quick timeline request, both locations were slotted to open at the same time!  Seeing this as a problem not only being stressful, but from a staffing standpoint, the Hot Indian owners decided to push the opening of the MOA back by one month.  This also gave everyone involved strategic advantages of having an operating example to pull experience from which to troubleshoot.

It is the plan of Hot Indian to continue to use these original plans to create a template from which to stamp out other stores. This allows them to streamline their training processes and make design, equipment acquisition, and business models easier to replicate.