For years, shoppers at JS Taj Grocers in Overland Park have known owners Jaspal Singh and Manjit Kaur for more than what’s on their grocery store’s shelves.
Their regular customers came in for grocery staples and spices, and they often left with home-cooked meals, catered trays and sweets prepared by the husband-and-wife duo. As demand quietly grew exclusively by word of mouth, customers began to ask when Kaur and Singh might open a restaurant of their own.
For the family, their daughter Simi Kaur said, it was an appealing vision — but one that felt like a somewhat daunting undertaking, especially if it took their focus away from the grocery store.
Then a former dry cleaners’ space next to the shop became available, and an opportunity emerged to do things the way they’d envisioned.
“When this opened up, it felt like a sign from God — like ‘OK, you guys can do this now,’,” she said. “My parents didn’t want to just get a business and not be a part of it. They wanted to still be able to give time to both the grocery store and (the restaurant).”
This summer, that vision finally became a reality. The family-run Indian fusion restaurant, Urban Eats, opened in Overland Park earlier this month — right next to their grocery store.
Urban Eats opened at 11832 Quivira Road
- The restaurant occupies a space at the Stoll Park shopping center, just off 119th Street and Quivira Road in Overland Park.
- There, it operates near Sawasdee Thai Cuisine and the Atomic Blonde salon at the shopping center.
- Urban Eats’ regular hours are 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch and 4:30 to 9 p.m. for dinner, every day of the week.
Urban Eats serves Indian fusion dishes
The menu at Urban Eats blends influences. Some classic Punjabi dishes and baked goods use recipes that Singh and Kaur have long prepared in their own kitchens, while others have been picked up by the family during their travels.
On the traditional side, the menu offers classic Indian dishes like butter chicken, veggie korma, Pakistani-style goat biryani, tandoori chicken and chana masala — in addition to street food snacks samosa chaat and aloo tikki.
In the pastry case, customers can also find sweets like rasmali, gulab jaman, and carrot buffi.
Then there’s the pizzas. By far, Simi said, the Indian-style pizzas have led the charge at Urban Eats, served with either chicken or paneer with a tikka masala sauce.
“Everything we are making is from scratch,” she said. “Even our pizzas, that is all our recipes. Our customers have said it tastes like homemade food rather than restaurant cooking, so that’s been something that we’ve been really happy to hear.”
The owners wanted to offer something different
Johnson County has no shortage of Indian restaurants.
As longtime Olathe residents themselves, Simi and her family knew this. So with their own restaurant, she said, they wanted to give customers some dishes they couldn’t get anywhere else — in addition to the ones that are central to Indian cuisine.
“We know there’s a demand for this, and it isn’t being met,” she said. “So that was like our condition — we’ll do it if we make it half-fusion, half-regular (Indian) restaurant.”
Behind the scenes, the family is already testing some additional ideas for the menu, including potential dishes like butter chicken garlic rolls.
It’s not just the new restaurant that’s garnering attention from the community. A wall that previously separated Urban Eats’ space and Taj Grocers now has an opening, where the owners and their customers can pass back and forth between the two.
Customers grabbing a bite at Urban Eats have started peeking into the grocery store, realizing it’s there for the first time even though it has been there for a decade.
“It’s really cool seeing a new community of people finding out about us for the first time,” Simi said.
That shared community was exactly what Singh and Kaur hoped for when they took the space next door: something where, regardless of whether they were grabbing some pizza or some groceries, their regular customers could always find them just around the corner.
That, and introducing people to some of the dishes their family knows and loves.
“Having other people show up and loving our food has been really fun,” Simi said. “That was always our hope.”
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