Meet San Francisco Bay area’s Tava India Kitchen’s Hasnain Zaidi, Chief Operating Officer. In this interview Zaidi shares the back story of how Tava was born and what kind of food they serve. We also find out if they were inspired by the success of Chipotle, the restaurant chain that serves Mexican food.

Tava is a casual restaurant chain that serves Indian food, and is often compared to Chipotle. Vijay Brihmadesam, Jason Pate and Zaidi are the founders of the restaurant chain. All three of them met while studying at Duke University.

The idea for starting Tava was born on a flight when Brihmadesam and Pate got talking about food options in the Bay area, especially Indian food. They roped in Zaidi and started working on their concept and also worked at Chipotle to get hands-on experience of working in a restaurant. They decided to start the restaurant in San Francisco Bay area rather than the East Coast, which is where all three of them were working. In 2012 they started their first restaurant in Palo Alto and now have a branch is San Francisco and San Jose. Earlier this year Tava raised $4.5 million in Series A funding.

This interview was aired on TV in San Francisco Bay area.