So that dining update I wrote on Amruth about a week ago? Instantly obsolete. According to Sahil Hameerani, owner of Curry in a Hurry, he walked into Amruth two days ago and offered to buy the place. He had no idea if the owners, Ramesh and Sudha Veluvolu, had even considered selling. Lucky for Hameerani, they were willing to consider quickly. “Mr. Veluvolu said it was becoming too much work for his wife to do everything, all the cooking,” said Hameerani.
For several weeks, Hameerani had been scouting a new location for Curry in a Hurry, which he opened in November as an offshoot to a convenience store on North Little Rock’s Pike Avenue. “It wasn’t the kind of location someone could go on a date,” he said. Hameerani had concerns about Pike Avenue from the beginning. He had chosen the locale because extended family owned the convenience store, but he’d tried to shield diners from what he considered a seedy neighborhood by pushing take out and offering private dining with thick curtains.
Currently, Hameerani is renovating Amruth, which is closed for lunch but still open as Amruth (with the Amruth menu) for dinner, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Hameerani’s father, who cooked for Curry in a Hurry, is running the kitchen alongside Sudha Veluvolu — a situation that may be temporary or permanent. According to Hameerani, the sale happened so quickly that he hasn’t had time to work out details. He knows he wants to retain Curry in a Hurry’s name and use Curry in a Hurry’s menu as a base. “But we want to expand on the menu, because we have a much bigger kitchen and a bigger dining space,” he said. He plans to feature plenty of ghee-free, vegan options on his expanded menu.
Hameerani also wants to change the Amruth dining room —”New paint, new tables, new everything,” he said. “Maybe something in light purple or orange, Indian colors.” He’d like to keep up the take out element of the business, while offering a lunch buffet and evening fine dining. His goal is to have the old Amruth operating as the new Curry in a Hurry by February 15. Hours will be 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. lunch, and 5 p.m. -10 p.m. dinner, seven days a week.