🫓 Spicebros Kingston: Fresh Naan, Familiar and New Bowls and Wraps, and Good Neighbours

It took Devinder Singh and Harish Mahey six years to open Spicebros in Kingston. First came COVID, then a long search for the right space. This summer they finally opened on Gardiners Road, serving bowls, naan wraps, burgers, tacos and poutine, with the heat left up to you.

We sat down with them the day before their grand opening, and checked in again in September to see how things were going.

Spicebros is where North American comfort food meets Indian-inspired flavours: bowls, wraps, burgers, tacos, poutine and more, ready in minutes.

Let's start with the naan. If you haven't had it, naan is a delicious soft, chewy flatbread, baked hot and fast so it puffs up with golden, toasty spots on the outside while staying tender inside. The packaged kind from the grocery store is fine, but naan is at its best minutes out of the oven, still warm.

At Spicebros, that's how you get it. A ball of dough goes onto the press, comes out flat and round, and about two minutes later it's puffed, blistered and wrapped around your lunch. It bakes in an electric tandoor, a very hot oven, right in front of you.

That naan becomes the wrap for Frankie rolls, filled with butter chicken, chili chicken, tandoori chicken or butter paneer (a mild fresh cheese). The Bro Bowl skips the bread and starts with basmati rice, salad and seasoned potatoes, topped with butter chicken, butter paneer, a vegetarian mix, or the spicier house Spicebros option. There are also mini bowls and wraps for lighter appetites, plus vegan and gluten-free options.

Spicebros Kingston has also started offering a thali, a platter of several small dishes, in vegetarian and non-vegetarian versions, according to its Instagram.

Despite spice being in its name, the food isn't built to burn your mouth. The base flavours are deliberately on the mild side, and you add heat yourself with spicy sauces or green chili. Anything with a kick is marked with a chili pepper on the menu. Not sure what you'll like? Ask. Counter staff will explain the sauces and give you a taste on the side before you decide.

Allergens are charted in the store and marked on the menu, including nuts and cashews. The butter sauce contains cashews, so if you have a nut allergy, check with staff before you order.

Spicebros is more than a quick bite. It's a little food adventure, and it's one that gives back. When we asked about community support, Montreal co-founder Atul Kapoor told us the brand is "built on community partnerships," and that any local organization can reach out about feeding its volunteers. Fellow co-founder Karan Bhatti put it simply: "donation of food, a gift card, anything for a good cause."

Devinder took it a step further when he wrote to us in September: "My idea would be to provide freshly prepared food, rather than only donating leftovers. We would also be open to preparing food for specific community events or organizations that need support." In the interview, he named fire stations, food banks, libraries and police as examples.

They're already showing up. In July, the organizers of Kingston's Mela Melna Da celebration thanked Spicebros on Instagram for serving food at their event. The brand has done this elsewhere too: in Etobicoke, a volunteer with Food for Now posted about picking up two large bags of hot food, samosas included, arranged by Atul.

Spicebros Kingston belongs to two local co-owners.

Harish Mahey has called Kingston home for about ten years, after moving from India. If you've ordered a sub in this city, there's a fair chance he made it. He used to work at nearly all of Kingston's Subway locations, the seven or eight run by one local owner. He also runs a local Jani-King commercial cleaning franchise. At Spicebros, he calls himself the "all-rounder."

Devinder Singh handles operations and finance. He came to Kingston about two years ago by way of Brampton, where he studied, and he's an industrial mechanic by trade. Before Spicebros, he had no background in food at all.

Devinder visited Kingston often before he moved here, and it won him over. "Over there it's a fast pace, like you've been just running to everywhere," he said of Brampton, "but here it's relaxing." His young daughter has already made friends with Harish's daughters.

You can see the mechanic in the naan. Each ball of dough is weighed, 165 to 170 grams for a nine-inch wrap, then baked for about two minutes.

It's a family effort. Both their wives pitch in at the restaurant, and Harish's kids sometimes help out too. For the grand opening, a brother-in-law came from Nova Scotia to lend a hand, and Harish's wife arranged local henna artists.

Harish has watched Kingston's Sikh community grow from about 10 or 15 families when he arrived to thousands today. Both men go to the Kingston Sikh Cultural Association Gurudwara on Bath Road, which is open every day.

Harish knows what's at stake. Talking about how hard it is for any owner to close a restaurant after pouring in the money and the time, he put it simply: "Main thing is the dream."

Devinder and Harish first saw a Spicebros ad around 2020. They met the founders, Karan and Atul, and agreed to bring the brand to Kingston. Then COVID hit, and for years the right space didn't turn up. They trained in Montreal while they waited.

The brand itself was born in Montreal. Atul started it with a childhood friend, and the "bros" in the name is the two of them. Picking the rest of the name, he told us they wanted "a name that was non-Indian but still described some of the flavour," because the menu flavours are definitely much broader.

Why Kingston? Atul saw a city with several restaurants serving these flavours, but no quick-service spot where your "food's ready in five minutes." We pointed out that Kingston isn't exactly a big city. They came anyway, joining about 18 Spicebros locations across Canada at the time, from Quebec to Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary. Today there are more than 20, with Ottawa, Hamilton and Quebec City on the way.

In the end, the space came through Harish's network. Harish spotted the listing on MLS for the unit at 764 Gardiners Road, in the RioCan Centre across from Best Buy, and he already knew the owner. Another restaurant, Bombay Frankies, had been set to open there but never did.

Spicebros started serving in late June and held its grand opening on August 1, with free bowls for the first 50 customers, buy-one-get-one deals and free henna. Mayor Bryan Paterson and MP Mark Gerretsen were there for the ribbon cutting, and MPP Ted Hsu attended as well. When we checked in with Devinder in September, he wrote that things were "going well," and that they're "continuing to build our customer base and are seeing good daily sales."

When we asked Devinder and Harish what they eat on a shift, they both gave the same answer: the butter chicken, as a bowl. It's also their best seller.

So that's what I ordered. Full disclosure: I don't usually pick butter chicken, because I'm not a fan of sweet with meat. And I rarely order chicken at all, because it so often comes out overcooked and dry. Neither was the case here. I went back the next day for more.