Written by Adity Ghosh

Kamloops, Tournament Capital of Canada. The city is not only known for sports or games but also its multi-culturalism. The dominating factor of this multi-culturalism is having Thompson Rivers University at the heart of the city and its international student demographic. And a rising number of international student populations means a rising number of international food markets and a growing number of internationally owned restaurants.

Most of the international students of Kamloops are from East Asia (China, Korea, Japan) and South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh). To maintain the food cravings of these students and to provide locals with a different food taste than Canadians, Kamloops has so many restaurants owned by immigrants. These restaurants offer foods that carry the taste of their homeland and provide an interior where local people feel welcomed in a different culture and students, or other immigrants get the homely feelings.

There are almost fifteen Indian restaurants in Kamloops that provide hearty Indian foods and an interior that reflects the theme of Indian culture. But do you think all these restaurants can satisfy your tastebuds with real Indian taste and make you feel welcome? To get the answer to that we need to know what the locals and the immigrant population of Kamloops prefer to quench their cravings.

Twenty-two out of thirty international students and ten out of fifteen local people prefer Spice Indian Cuisine whenever they want to have Indian foods, which makes Spice one of the customer favorites and most successful Indian restaurants in town.

But have you ever wondered what it takes for a small business, especially an immigrant-owned restaurant business to be successful in a foreign country? What keeps them moving and motivated in their business? What struggles had they gone through? To find out the answers to these questions, no other restaurant than Spice Indian Cuisine would be a great example.

Around the beginning of Fall 2009, Sukhinder Sawa started Spice Indian Cuisine in North Kamloops. It is a family-owned business, and the restaurant is located at the end of North Hills Shopping Mall, beside CIBC, and just 2 minute walk from the North Shore exchange bus stop.

If you are thinking that the owner just dive into the business, then you are wrong. She has been living in Kamloops since 1970. She had seen Kamloops grow in the past 50 years. Before Spice Indian Cuisine, she had two other businesses: one was Tranquille Water Market, and the other was a convenience store.

When Sawa started Spice, she had a partner in the business. And the wife of his partner and her son used to be the cook at the restaurant. But at the end of 2010, her business partner left because of a serious health issue of his wife, which had left them to swirl in darkness.

“Hiring a professional Indian cook was the hardest part to keep the business in life. There were our family friends and known people working as cooks at Indian restaurants in Vancouver and Surrey. We offered them better pay to come and work with us. But they are not willing to come. You know Kamloops is a small city compared to those cities, so opportunities are also less here”, said Sawa.

She also added, “besides, it was also hard to sponsor someone for a work visa to come to Canada and work with our restaurant. The entire visa process depends on the immigration officers. So, after many failed attempts, we successfully brought two people from India with a work visa, and they are still with us.”

It was not until 2011 that Spice began to climb the stairs of its success. By that time there were a couple more Indian restaurants in town. But from 2011, they own the “Reader’s Choice Awards” for 10 years in a row and became Kamloops’ best Indian restaurant. This year, they own the “Best Buffet Awards”. Success was just sparkling over Spice Indian Cuisine.

What do you think was the reason behind Spice’s success? Was it just their food taste and menu items? Or was there something else?

“We don’t believe that providing better foods and maintaining the same food tastes can land you in success. Yes, we offer the best-tasting food and the best homely feelings to our customers. But this is not the only reason they prefer us. What I believe in is customers are always right and any negative comments from customers are an open way to learn. We own our mistakes and accept it as a challenge to do better”, Sawa explained.

She also described how doing charity work, donating money to the hospital and the “heart and rest foundation”, having a Christmas cheer fund, and arranging free buffets for that foundation are helping them grow their business much stronger. “Last year we donated $5000/= to the Heart and rest Foundation. Being part of the committee and doing community work, and helping people are bringing us closer to so many people whom we never think of. This joy is not describable with words”.

For Sawa, customer support is the main reason that drives their work more energetically and keeps them successful in this competitive business market. And these supporting and happy customers are the best and most precious rewards for Spice Indian Cuisine.