Pasadena residents who remember Akbar, the Indian restaurant on the corner of Fair Oaks and Union for 20 years that closed in 2018, have reason to celebrate. Chef/owner Avinash Kapoor has found a new spot to re-emerge on Arroyo Parkway at the Green Tree Inn.
As Kapoor explained, ‘’We closed the old Pasadena location in March of 2018 because the property got sold, and the new landlord didn’t renew the lease.”
Kapoor then opened a new restaurant called Kapoor Akbar in Chinatown in Los Angeles, noting that most of his customers were actually from Pasadena.
“There was a big demand for me to open up in Pasadena,” he said recently.
So, backed by an investor, Kapoor began looking again for a Pasadena location and found the former home of the Chandra and Galaga Too restaurants. He waited patiently as the pandemic ran its course, and just recently signed a lease for the new location.
The new venue is 1,000 feet larger than bhis former place, said Kapoor, and will also feature a wine bar
The new location is also a new source of inspiration, he admitted.
“I’m going to be introducing a lot of new things that I have been experimenting with over at the Chinatown location,”said Kapoor. “I’m developing the wine bar space, but I’m bringing Akbar back with some new things. I’m keeping the colors the same a little bit, but the atmosphere is going to be different.”
Kapoor will also be bringing along the two chefs from the original Pasadena Akbar to his new spot, he said.
One doesn’t own a restaurant without having fans and their favorites, which he is wisely mindful of.
“They love my Chicken Tikka Masala, which is still very popular over here,” Kapoor said of his fans, speak from his Chinatown kitchen. “They also love my Coco lamb. It’s my signature dish. I’ve been serving it for 24 years.”
While Kapoor grew up in his father’s restaurant in Vadodara, India, he didn’t learn to cook until he moved to Los Angeles more than 40 years ago, and opened his first Indian restaurant in Marina Del Rey, he said, learning from his uncle.
“My uncle and father taught me to make my Mom’s recipes,” he said.
“We used to have a restaurant there, but then in India they would not let me cook there. In Indian culture, the boss doesn’t work. I’m my dad’s son. So the boss’s son doesn’t work. One day I went to wash dishes, and they threw me out!” he laughed.
“They said, ‘How dare you even touch them?’ It’s a class thing.”
At Akbar, however, he handles the pots and pans as well as the broom.
“I do everything here,” he said.
Kapoor will continue to do everything at his new Arroyo Parkway location, which he hopes to finally open in early June. Can you say Chicken Tikka Masala?
Akbar, at the Green Tree Inn, 400 South Arroyo Parkway, Pasadena, CA.
