Appliance Repair in Turlock, CA

Name of business: Tandoori Pizza

Type of business: Restaurant

Location: 3181 Geer Rd., Turlock

Hours: Monday through Friday from11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Contact information: (209) 963-4560 or tandooripizzainc@hotmail.com

Specialty: Pizza

History of business:

Tandoori Pizza was founded in 2015 by Tejinder Singh, hoping to introduce pizza lovers to some of the most popular flavors that India has to offer. Since then, there have been seven locations opened across the Bay Area. In the coming days, an eighth Tandoori Pizza will open in Turlock at the town’s former Pizza Hut location at 3181 Geer Rd.

Paul Singh, the cousin of Tejinder Singh, has worked at and managed at some of the other Tandoori Pizzas in the past. Now, he is enthusiastically preparing to manage the Turlock location once the doors are opened to the public.

According to Singh, his family had been thinking about bringing a Tandoori Pizza to the Modesto Metropolitan Area. When Pizza Hut closed over 250 locations nationwide, he knew that he had to make the most out of the opportunity.

“When Turlock opened up and this location became available, it was just one of those opportunities you had to jump on,” Singh said. “Everything about this place I liked personally because it’s a roomy space, it’s nice, the population here in Turlock is friendly and nice. It’s a very big town but it still gives you that smalltown feel.”

Singh and his team officially moved into the space on Geer Road on Sept. 1, 2021. Since that time, they have been working around the clock to revamp the entire look and interior design. Inside, there are brand new tables, booths and chairs, new ceiling tile, wood accents on the lower halves of the walls, and a baby blue and white color scheme taking over the remaining space on the walls.

“Our main goal is to not have a customer walk in and know that this used to be a Pizza Hut or that it looks like a Pizza Hut and it’s just the name that’s changed,” Singh explained. “We want to change the vibe in here, bring a whole different type of vibe to this town. We want it to be uplifting with the modern furniture and the brighter colors… A lot of traditional pizza places tend to use the color red, so we wanted to step away and stand out from that and be different and unique.”

Aside from the design and décor, Tandoori Pizza is looking to stand out from other pizza spots with their unique menu. Singh explained that while they will still offer traditional pizzas, wings and other entrees and appetizers to customers, there will also be an abundance of menu items highlighting rich Indian flavors.

“We twist things up with the marinated chickens, the marinated achari gobhi, marinated paneer. We’re basically bringing the East Coast and West Coast together,” Singh said. “Pizza is universal and once you put marinated chicken and other marinated things on it, it just brings out the bold flavors. With traditional pizzas, you’re just used to the traditional red sauce, oregano and basil, and then you have all these other new spices in there and your tase buds are just going to go wild and you’ll be craving more eventually.”

Singh explained that, of the Indian style pizzas on the menu, there will be about five vegetarian and about eleven non-vegetarian pies, each with chicken marinated in different Indian spices.

He added that there is a similar balance when it comes to the appetizer menu. In terms of wings, they will have the traditional buffalo and barbecue wings while also offering tandoori and achari flavored wings. When it comes to bread, they will offer traditional garlic sticks with cheese while also offering tandoori and dhesi sticks with cheese, all served with sides of Indian dipping sauces.

Tandoori Pizza is expected to have the usual slate of fountain drinks and sodas, and although nothing is finalized yet, Singh has put in the paperwork in hopes of also serving alcoholic beverages.

“We have applied for our beer and liquor license. We really want to get in on the craft beer game and bring about 10 to 15 different types of beers in. We’ll still have the Coors Lights, the Modelos, but we want to focus on the craft beer and give people more options to enjoy,” he said.

Once Tandoori Pizza’s Turlock location opens in the next week or two, Singh then hopes that it can be successful enough to continue to branch out to cities in the Central Valley.

“Once we get this one going, then we can branch out to Modesto, Ceres, Livingston, Fresno and just go down the line on 99,” he said. “We are currently family owned, but one day we do hope to make it a franchise where it can be bought by an individual outside of the family and grow from there, similar to how bigger chains like Mountain Mikes and Round Table. They started off as small, family businesses too.”

Singh hopes to be able to have a grand opening on Friday, Sept. 30. Community members are encouraged to follow official Tandoori Pizza social media accounts for the latest updates.

Tandoori Pizza can be found on Facebook at @TandooriPizza and on Instagram at @TandooriPizzaCalifornia. To learn more about Tandoori Pizza and to scan their full menu of appetizers and entrees ahead of their opening, head to www.tandooripizza.com.

In Virginia, the Town of Herndon Planning Commission unanimously approved replacing a 40-year-old warehouse with a 30,000-square-foot Security Public Storage facility at 331 Victory Drive. The warehouse, whose tenants include the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, would be demolished. Next up is a public hearing before the Architectural Review Board. Demolition and construction would take about one year. Source: FFX Now

Pepperjack Palm LLC, managed by Robert Dubey, seeks an amendment for a 5.45-acre site at 925 S. State Road 7 in Wellington, FL. The project’s second phase called for 28,000 square feet of medical offices, but the developer wants to change that to 107,298 square feet of self-storage behind the restaurant. The three-story building would have 220 storage bays. The project’s value is estimated to be $7.5 million. This would be the first location in Palm Beach County for BRB Development LLC, managed by Robert A. Soudan of Northfield, IL-based Lock Up Self Storage Group, which has the property under contract. Lauren McClellan of JMorton Planning & Landscape Architecture in Palm Beach Gardens represents the developer. Source: South Florida Business Journal

In New Mexico, the Los Alamos Planning & Zoning Commission approved a special-use permit for Columbus Capital to build a self-storage facility in the former Smith’s supermarket, which has 58,000 square feet in the Mari-Mac Center. Smith’s moved out in 2014. The self-storage portion would be required to reapply in 5.5 years. Source: Los Alamos Reporter

Lyman Real Estate Brokerage announced that Moove In Self Storage bought a three-story building at 208-210 Salem Turnpike near the Walmart-Big Y plaza, in Norwich, CT. Ron Lyman, Lyman CEO, said the building and just under 2 acres of land were sold to Rick Hansberry of Moove In for $2 million, with the buyers planning a new facility in the 87,000-square-foot building. Moove In is based in York, Pa. The company has facilities in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Iowa. Source: The Day

Longtime Chattanooga, TN developer Clint Wolford of Wolford Development is proposing self-storage and restaurants for a new retail center on a 6.3-acre East Brainerd Road parcel near Heritage Park. He hopes the city will rezone the parcel from residential to commercial. Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press

Completed

Turlock Self Storage opened at 528 Dianne Drive in Turlock, CA between Fulkerth Road and West Main Street. It is offering a one-year price guarantee. Turlock is part of Smart Self Storage, which has 12 additional storage facilities in California. Source: PR Web

Under construction

A new storage complex with several buildings is going up on Highway 3, north of Poulsbo city limits, in North Kitsap, WA along Highway 3. The Cooppertop Storage Poulsbo site will have about 100,000 square feet of storage space. Doug Nelson and his wife Karina own the site. Some of the space will be allocated for boats and RVs. The site is about 5 acres and is between Ryen Drive and Highway 3, near the Snyder Park baseball fields. The Nelsons bought the site for $950,000 in August 2021. Completion is expected in late June 2023. Source: Kitsap Sun

Spartan Investment Group announced that an expansion has begun for an additional self-storage building (above) at 4044 County Road 384 in Tyler, TX. The existing FreeUp Storage Tyler will add nearly 54,000 square feet of storage, including two climate-controlled buildings and 15 RV/boat storage spots. The property is Spartan’s third one in Tyler to undergo improvement. Spartan is based in Golden, CO. Source: Spartan Investment Group

As work continues on the new Amazon fulfillment center coming to Turlock, the online retail giant has pushed back the facility’s opening.

Construction on the new million-square-foot warehouse continues as the e-commerce retailer has moved its planned opening from “mid-2022” to September 2022, according to company spokesperson Natalie Banke. Hiring for the expected 1,000 new jobs expected to staff the facility hasn’t started yet, but should in coming months.

Word about a possible Amazon fulfillment center coming to Turlock first began circulating in April 2021. By August of that year, with construction already underway, the online shopping behemoth finally confirmed the news and pending jobs coming to the Central Valley.

“We’re excited to launch this new facility in Turlock and we know the local community is excited about the opportunities we’ll be bringing to the area. We look forward to sharing details about the great jobs we’re offering as soon as we can,” Banke said.

This will be Amazon’s second fulfillment center in Stanislaus County. It opened its first in Patterson in 2013. The company has warehouses dotting the Northern San Joaquin Valley with other facilities in Tracy and Stockton. Between its existing regional distribution and fulfillment centers, Amazon employs some 21,000 warehouse workers.

The Turlock site will add another 1,000 employees, but Banke said hiring announcements have not started yet for warehouse workers. Once the center is closer to opening, expect the company to hold hiring events.

Currently, the exterior of the new facility has a banner encouraging people to join text alerts for upcoming Amazon jobs in the region. To sign up text “AMAZONJOBS” to “?77088?,” and then you will receive a series of texts asking you to opt-in for jobs in your zip code.

Amazon Careers, the company’s online hiring site, does not have any jobs for the upcoming Turlock site listed yet.

Construction on the massive project continues, with what appears to be most of the exterior work done and focus shifting inside. The warehouse has gone up on roughly 75 acres off Fulkerth Road, just west of Highway 99 in the Turlock Regional Industrial Park. Banke said completing the work has been a “moving target.”

The center’s pending opening comes after months of mystery in early 2021 when the project was still under wraps. City of Turlock officials could not comment because of non-disclosure agreements signed with the company until Amazon made an official announcement almost a year ago.

This story was originally published June 21, 2022 6:00 AM.

Al fresco food, fun and families could soon come together in a planned outdoor food truck and entertainment park just off downtown Turlock.

Plans were submitted last month to develop a 3-acre site that takes up about half a block between South Center Street and South Golden State Boulevard just off F Street.

The new project would include an open-air food truck court, permanent vendor spaces, a beer garden, covered and uncovered picnic areas, a game arcade, an entertainment stage, a public marketplace and a commissary for vendor food preparation.

Torre Reich, of Torre Reich Construction, is spearheading the Trax Food Park development as owner and contractor. With his team, he hopes to turn it into magnet for local families and more.

“We’re trying to make it kind of an all-for-one family entertainment destination,” said Jenn Weenk, the project coordinator and cost estimator. “It’ll be a place where you can come grab lunch, where the kids can play games, where everyone can enjoy being outside.”

The location, in an industrial area to the south of the downtown hub, would be converted into a large food park with shipping containers providing permanent structures and vendor spaces.

The existing 13,600-square-foot warehouse facing South Center Street would be renovated to largely become the on-site commissary, providing a commercial kitchen for the food truck vendors to use instead of having to go off site each night.

The project would incorporate two existing lots, both owned by members of the Hilmar Cheese founding Ahlem family, and the other structures would be torn down to make way for the food park.

The project was submitted to the city’s Planning Division early last month. A public hearing with the Planning Commission is set for May 5, and Weenk said if things go smoothly, they hope to begin work soon after. She estimates construction would take around six months, so they have hopes for a late 2022 opening.

Weenk said the idea for the project was to create a “south gateway to downtown Turlock,” with a focus on family entertainment. Its name Trax comes from its proximity to area railways which serve the area’s ag and other commercial businesses.

“There’s a need in Turlock in general to have something like this. We don’t really have any large outdoor family friendly facilities,” she said. “I think Turlock just kind of lacks something like this overall.”

Once completed, the food court would be able to fit at least 20 food trucks. Weenk said they are aiming for a diverse array of food options, from those offering full lunch and dinner to appetizers, desserts, specialty drinks and more.

The site also will have permanent shipping container spaces for about a dozen other retail or food vendors. The team is creating a mix of about 200 covered and uncovered dining spaces, and areas can be rented for private events. They also envision a market area, set up similarly to a farmers market, where the public and vendors can purchase local products.

Weenk said they hope to have permits approved by the public hearing May 5 to be able to move forward with construction soon. They plan to operate the park seven days a week, staying open until 9 p.m. on weekdays and until 2 a.m. on weekends.

Once completed, the food park would be considerably larger than Modesto’s popular Grub Hub food truck court, which opened downtown in May 2019 and has been a consistent draw since.

A new national restaurant chain is poised to give Turlock a Texas-sized welcome this fall.

Work on the new Texas Roadhouse on Countryside Drive continues, with plans for a mid-October opening for the popular steakhouse chain. To get ready for its debut, the company is accepting applications to staff the massive new restaurant.

Hiring is underway to fill some 225 jobs, including front- and back-of-house positions. Applicants can go to the Texas Roadhouse careers page at careers.texasroadhouse.com. Walk-in interviews are also being conducted from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday in the former Army/Navy recruiting center in the same Countryside Plaza Shopping Center, across the parking lot from the restaurant construction site.

Applicants should take their resumes and two forms of identification to the walk-up interviews. The company’s careers page lists more than a dozen open positions, from service manager to line cook, baker to bartender and more.

The restaurant chain is known for its big steaks and Texas-themed ambiance, which includes free peanuts and fresh baked bread at tables. Founded in 1993, the company is actually headquartered in Kentucky. The steakhouse chain has 610 locations in 49 states as well as international sites.

The Turlock location will be the chain’s first in the Central Valley city. It will replace the city’s old Hometown Buffet, which closed permanently during the pandemic. The new company chose to tear down the existing building to build the distinctive 8,300-square-foot Texas Roadhouse, with construction starting earlier this year.

A company representative said the Turlock site is among the chain’s larger restaurant models and will be able to seat 420 people at a time. That will make it one of the city’s largest-capacity restaurants, if not the outright largest.

This will be the second Texas Roadhouse location in Stanislaus County. The first opened in Modesto in 2013 on Sisk Road and has been a popular draw ever since. This year, the national steakhouse chain was ranked the 27th top largest national restaurant chain by Nation’s Restaurant News, an industry trade journal, with $3.4 billion in sales last year.

Another industry trade journal, FSR, ranked the company No. 4 in casual chain earnings per restaurant this year — with $6.4 million earned per year per restaurant.

Once open, the new Turlock Texas Roadhouse will serve dine-in and takeout daily for dinner, and weekends for lunch and dinner. For more information, visit www.texasroadhouse.com.

This story was originally published August 24, 2022 6:38 AM.