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An internationally acclaimed chef is partnering with a pair of Triangle restaurateurs to fuse Mexican and Indian flavors, with a Salvadoran twist, in downtown Chapel Hill.
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Tikka Tequila may be the first Mexican-Indian fusion restaurant in North Carolina, said Baljeet Singh, who operates Naan Stop in Durham and Naan House in Apex. An online search shows it is a growing concept in other parts of the country.
The new restaurant could open in early September at 504 W. Franklin St., Singh said. It’s a partnership with Chef Roberto Mendoza, who has cooked for presidents and other high-profile people — from Hollywood stars attending the Academy Awards to spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living Foundation.
The 2,800-square-foot space was previously leased to The Latin Effect, which featured a Latin American menu but was only open for about nine months before closing in June.
Mendoza, who lives in Charlotte, said the UNC-Chapel Hill campus and its students inspired him to join the venture with Singh to bring his Mexican-Indian concept to Chapel Hill.
“God has brought me to Chapel Hill, and I believe the students and local community are looking for something healthy, fresh and different,” Mendoza said.
Singh and her husband Gulshan Singh are also renovating 1301 E. Franklin St. in Chapel Hill, where Naan by Gulshan could open early next year. Gulshan Singh worked in the same location during the 1990s when it operated as Tandoor Indian Restaurant.
This is not the first time that Mendoza, a native of El Salvador, has crafted new dishes from a blend of cultural flavors. Another Charlotte restaurant, La Riviera Marisqueria, puts a Salvadoran flair on American cuisine.
He also finds joy in cooking, Mendoza told Carolina Impact in an interview earlier this year, as he recounted a time growing up in El Salvador when life wasn’t fun.
He was a young boy when the Salvadoran civil war, from 1979 to 1992, broke out, making food and water scarce. Over 75,000 people were killed by bombs and fighting, including his sister and his brother-in-law, leaving four children orphaned, he told the Spanish-language newspaper La Noticia in 2023.
After Mendoza enrolled in college to study accounting, he and 27 other students were kidnapped by soldiers. They were tortured and lived in harsh conditions for more than a month, but he survived, escaping with help from The Salvation Army, Mendoza said.
The Salvation Army “saved my life,” he told Carolina Impact, and he eventually arrived in Canada, where he finished his education. In 1994, he moved to Los Angeles and got a job in a restaurant, working his way through the ranks and later becoming a chef.
It was a salmon dish that he presented to a prince from Saudi Arabia in 1998, while working as head chef at The Beverly Hills Hotel, that landed him a job cooking at the White House for then-President Bill Clinton. He has since cooked at events for presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, Mendoza said.
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During the Obama administration, he also worked with former First Lady Michelle Obama and through programs targeting healthier food options in schools and universities. He helped 34 universities nationwide develop food programs, and also joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture to spread fresh food around the world through food-production and agricultural programs.
In 2009, he founded Chef Heaven’s Kitchen, a nonprofit fighting hunger and poverty in the United States and abroad. Winning $250,000 in the NC Lottery expanded that work in 2019.
His culinary career has led to partnerships in several Charlotte-area restaurants, and Mendoza now owns an import and export company, buying containers of food to distribute to schoolchildren and impoverished communities around the world. He speaks four languages — English, Spanish, French and Hebrew — and also owns daycare centers in Charlotte and South Carolina, he said.
“Food has always been more than a business to me. It is about health, opportunity, service, and giving back,” Mendoza said.
The restaurant will have roughly 80 seats for indoor dining and be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They are hiring 10 employees to start and could expand to around 25, Mendoza said.
It’s “a really good concept” based on fresh ingredients and sauces from both cultures, he said. Gluten-free and vegan options will also be available.
The idea for a fusion concept came to him while cooking for Shankar in India, Mendoza said, and he mentioned it to Singh, saying “It’s a great idea if I put [these flavors] together.”
Both Indian and Mexican cultures are known for their love of spice and heat, but Indian is the winner if you really want food with a kick, he said, adding, “They like it spicy.”
“You know, chefs are crazy. So me being a chef, I became a little bit crazy, and I said this is a food concept,” Mendoza said.
His favorite item on the menu is the naan tacos, which pairs a variety of fillings with Indian naan bread instead of tortillas. Mendoza said he likes his tacos with chicken tikka, but the lunch and dinner menu also will include empanadas, burritos, bowls and pupusas, in addition to steaks and seafood.
Breakfast will feature a table-side omelet station, where diners can watch as their eggs are prepared fresh to order, Mendoza said.
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