This new veteran-owned Clovis restaurant has roots in Coalinga, India and Iraq
A new restaurant is opening in Clovis, but owner Manpreet Singh’s path first took him all over the globe.
He graduated from high school in Coalinga, fought for the U.S. Army in Iraq, met his wife in India and finally came back home to the Valley.
Now, the couple is embarking on their next adventure, running Gulab Indian Bistro.
The restaurant that opened Monday at Shaw and Fowler avenues is a high-end Indian restaurant. It serves both traditional foods and a twist on the authentic — such as a pasta with white sauce and veggies that looks Italian but is full of Indian spices.
Gulab is in the home of the former Dai-Ichi Japanese restaurant. But it looks nothing its predecessor.
Now it’s got dim lighting and lots of color, including rainbow-colored neon peacock lights on the wall. (An elder uncle of Singh’s had a peacock tattoo, and it’s a symbol of virility and youth, he says.)
The food
But the person responsible for the food at this restaurant is Singh’s wife, Mandeep Pelia.
The menu is made up of the dishes and spice blends she uses at home and growing up in northern India.
The tandoori fish is perhaps the most popular dish, cooked in a modern tandor. That’s a clay oven that’s like a giant clay pot on the inside, metal on the outside. It gets extremely hot and pieces of fish are cooked on a metal skewer that sits vertically inside the oven.
The always popular garlic naan is cooked in that oven too, plopped against the inside clay wall, where it hangs, just until crispy.
Also popular: the tandoori chicken and samosa appetizer, which is available here as vegetarian, chicken or lamb.
Street food has made its way onto the menu too in the form of Indo-Chinese noodles. Almost like ramen, the noodles are tossed in an orange sauce and topped with veggies.
“In northern India, so much culture has been mixed up there,” said Singh, adding that it’s not unusual to see fried chicken and burgers in regular Indian restaurants.
So it’s no surprise Pelia created a pasta dish. It might look a bit like pasta Alfredo, but it’s made with Indian spices including lots of garlic.
Customers can pick the spice level of their food.
The cook can drop a bomb in your mouth if that’s what you want (seriously, there’s naan with “all the green chilies” on it). But northern Indian and Punjabi cooking is not about heat, said Pelia.
“We are not selling spices, we are selling food,” she said. “I want to medium the spice level so you taste the food.”
Gulab has a bar that’s still being stocked and eventually will serve beer, wine and cocktails.
The name Gulab means rose in Punjabi.
The family behind Gulab
This is the first restaurant for the couple, who has a 10-month-old girl.
As for Singh, his career path is windy.
He came to the U.S. in 2004 and graduated from Coalinga High School in 2008. Not quite knowing what he wanted to do when he graduated, he joined the Army. He was based in Hawaii and deployed to Kuwait and Iraq.
His job was to train and oversee soldiers using gas masks and how to avoid protect them from biological agents.
But Singh also served inside a cramped and sweaty striker, a tank-like vehicle on wheels with a 50-caliber gun on top. He loaded and shot the striker’s weapons, providing cover during combat for other troops.
After returning home, he worked in the family businesses, including a liquor store, and did some catering.
That’s when his family decided it was time for him to find a wife.
“I’m not doing anything right now,” he said. “They were like, ‘Hey, let’s go to India, maybe we’ll get you married.’”
And they did.
It was an arranged marriage and he stayed in India until Pelia could join him in the U.S.
She was a nurse, though she had trouble transferring her certifications to work in the U.S.
She had always dreamed of opening a restaurant, but put that on hold when their daughter was born.
But then the perfect spot became available in Clovis. They jumped at the opportunity.
A large red and white sign above the bar declares the restaurant is “veteran owned.”
Brandi Asacker, founder Clovis-based Beyond the Barracks, an organization that supports local veterans, has been making sure people know Gulab is veteran owned.
Vets aren’t always comfortable promoting themselves or their service, she noted, but she hopes people will go there and spend money as a thank you, she said.
“I think it’s very important to support veteran-owned business because they did sacrifice so willingly for us and those they did not know,” she said. “They put their life on the line. The least we can do is as a community is to pour that love back into them.”
Details: Gulab Indian Bistro is at 1820 Shaw Ave., suite 104 in Clovis. Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
This story was originally published November 27, 2023 at 12:28 PM.
