A late-night restaurant with a multicultural twist of the American classics is set to open in Colorado Springs.
Gaia Masala & Burger is a Boulder-based restaurant that fuses American fast food with Indian and Mediterranean cuisine, a combination difficult to find in the Colorado Springs food scene.
Gaia Masala Burger is located downtown at 12 S. Tejon St., the former longtime spot of Marco’s Pizza, which closed in February.
Nandalal Nyaupane and his business partner, Hira Kunwar, are bringing their concept to the Springs with a target crowd: young people roaming the downtown streets at night.
While they offer traditional American options, their more unique foods are more successful, the business partners said. Their most popular menu items are the tikka masala cheesesteak and tikka masala burger, according to Nyaupane. Vegan and vegetarian options will also be offered at the restaurant.
“People are hungry, they are searching for food. You can go to McDonald’s, but it’s not the same as us: real burgers, real food. You don’t find that at night (here),” Nyaupane said.
Nyaupane boasted about reviews of their other locations, noting one of their Denver restaurants has 4.9 stars with more than 1,500 reviews.
“They are super satisfied, our customers, and our goal is to expand our concept to downtown,” he said.
While the focus on a younger crowd, there’s also a place for families.
The Colorado Springs location will provide indoor seating for around 40 . People will also be able to order their food for pickup online or take it to go.
The restaurant chain originally opened its doors for hungry college students at the University of Colorado Boulder in 2019, and its only grown since.
They’ve expanded into Denver with two locations and have goals of possibly branching outside of Colorado. Plans of opening the chain’s fifth restaurant in Fort Collins are in the works after the Springs’ spot is up and running.
As an immigrant from Nepal, Nyaupane dreamed of opening his own business in the “haven country” of the U.S. He wanted to use his experience working in Indian restaurants to create a different spin to the cuisine.
“When I came here, I’m thinking, I need to do something different,” Nyaupane said. “Everyone makes the same things. If you go to Indian restaurants, you get the same food. You go to American restaurants, same kind of thing.”
The snow-capped mountain tops and colorful scenery drew him to Colorado, a state that closely resembles his home in Nepal.
When he moved, Nyaupane worked toward his dream by working in other restaurants until he had saved enough money for his own.
Along the way he met Kunwar, who had worked his way up to head chef at CU Boulder and became familiar with American cuisine. It wasn’t long before the two business-minded individuals bought their first restaurant together on The Hill.
The last element to create the cultural blend to their restaurant came when they met Yunish Wataban, who owned a Mediterranean restaurant that was closed in the same location on The Hill. Wataban became their head chef, who brought gyros and shawarma to the menu.
The location will continue its history of offering pizza by serving gyro and masala pizzas plus a basic pepperoni beef pizza.
The restaurant will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. seven days a week starting Monday.
