New owners have taken over Peppino’s Pizza on Pine St. S and they've rebranded the restaurant as Nukkad Pizza, Bar and Grill.
Customers looking to venture outside of their usual pepperoni pizza order are in luck, because Nukkad specializes in pizzas infused with Indian flavours.
“This is basically an Indian restaurant now,” says new owner Shelly Bathia, in an interview with ThoroldToday. “It is kind of a fusion food. We are doing some of our flavours of pizza, like butter chicken pizza and all that stuff.”
While the restaurant still offers traditional Italian pizzas, the Indian infused items have been flying off the shelves — such as the tandoori momo.
“Momo is a dumpling,” explains Bhatia. “It’s a very famous street food back home.”
Bathia grew up in India but moved to Canada in 2017.
She and her partner used to own a restaurant together in Brampton, but now they've decided to focus their efforts on the new restaurant in Thorold.
“It’s kind of a family business,” Bathia says. “It’s a big commute for us, coming from Brampton, but you have to do what you have to do. We planned to move in this space because we always come to Niagara. We thought to bring that taste from Brampton.”
To put together the menu, Bathia and her partner rely on the recipes and flavours they grew up with back home.
“India is a huge country so every kilometre you will find a different cuisine, a different taste or flavour,” she says. "We are from the north part of India. Our recipes are from the Indian street style vendors.”
The couple has only been in the space on Pine St. S for a month, but they’re already looking forward to making the place their own.
“We are planning to renovate the space and we applied for the bar licensing as well,” Bathia says. “We are still new to the area so we are studying what kind of food they like here. Our food is full of flavours. That’s why we always say that our food is fusion food. Everyone can love it.”
