BRAND NEW: Desi Shack

If you have passed by the corner of 39th Street and Lexington, you probably may have noticed a new casual restaurant in the neighborhood called Desi Shack.

Desi Shack is the newest quick service restaurant that specializes in serving skewered grilled Indian and Pakistani food in a simple customizable format: you choose your meal, your filling, your vegetables and your chutney. Everything is made fresh on site, including the chutneys and drinks.

I had the opportunity to sit and chat with amazing and lovely co-founder, Yasmin Ibrahim.

Q: What inspired you and your husband to open Desi Shack?

Yasmin: We had this idea a few years back and thought to ourselves wouldn’t it be cool to have a desi quick service restaurant serving grilled food and vegetables all rolled up into one.

This past November we thought about this idea seriously and I decided to quit my consulting job to pursue this idea full time.

We focused on the skewered-grill style desi food with a simple menu which our customers can customize the way they want and take back to their office without making a mess!

Most importantly, everything is made fresh on site at Desi Shack, including our drinks and chutneys.

Q: How has business been going since you’ve opened?

Yasmin: We have only been open for a few weeks and had we decided to go for a soft opening, letting customers discover us and allowing us to collect our customers’ feedback.

Business has been going very well since we have opened. We have a loyalty program started where if you get 10 stamps you get your next meal free and we’ve already have had customers come back and redeem their cards!

We have developed a following which is very encouraging and we love getting our customer’s feedback on our public discussion board called “I Always Get.” This board allows our customers to share their favorite dish and make recommendations to future customers, creating a sense of community.

Q. What is your favorite combination from the menu?

Yasmin: My personal favorite is the paratha roll with the grilled lamb kebab, mixed salad and sliced onions, and a mix of the mild and medium spice chutney, which pairs very well with the grilled lamb.

My personal favorite chutney for an all purpose dip is the green chili coconut chutney, which is a special recipe that we developed in-house.

As for my personal favorite drink, it would have to be the mint limeade – a light and refreshing drink with a touch of sweetness.

Q: I noticed on Desi Shack’s website that you strongly believe in giving back. Tell us more about your philanthropic plans.

Yasmin: We’ve been very lucky in life to have received an education, to be able to live here and to be able to pursue our dream and start Desi Shack. As a result, we want to take this opportunity to give back and make giving back a core part of our business.

We take 5 cents from every meal sold, whether it is a bowl, a roll, or salad, and we put it straight into a charity fund. The 5 cents we put into the charity fund comes straight from our revenue line. So even if Desi Shack does not have a profitable year, the charity fund will still be funded. At then at the end of the year, we will donate all the proceeds to a charity of our customer’s choice.

This year we want to donate to an education charity since it is a cause we strongly support. We will select three charities with a focus on education and then let our customers vote to decide which of the three charities will receive the donation.

If you haven’t already, check out Desi Shack at 39th street and Lexington and follow them on facebook & twitter to vote for a charity at the end of the year!

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