Nothing typical about incoming Perry District Indian-Mexican fusion restaurant

There is a new flavor coming to the South Perry District.

This spring, Indicana, an Indian-Mexican fusion restaurant, will offer dishes unlike anything else in Spokane – or just about anywhere.

“The only other restaurant I know of is in Mexico City,” said Chip Overstreet, co-owner.

Overstreet, who is an investor and former CEO of Spokane-based seasonings distributor Spiceology, will co-own the business with Noreen Hiskey. Hiskey is the lead chef and architect of the unique menu.

The space at 1020 S. Perry St. will feature 2,200 square feet capable of seating 55 patrons. The 1,200-square-foot back patio that overlooks Grant Park will seat 30, according to the two.

Despite requiring extensive renovation work, the space is perfect, according to Hiskey.

The experienced chef also owns Inland Curry, a pop-up Indian-cuisine restaurant that was often featured at Feast World Kitchen. The nonprofit restaurant offers different cuisine every day from immigrants and former refugee chefs.

Hiskey hauled her equipment and ingredients to the downtown location every Thursday for the last 3½ years. Overstreet was one of her regulars.

“My whole family just loved Thursdays,” he said. “It was curry night.”

But one member, the son and the most selective eater of the Overstreet family, less than loved the weekly tradition.

“He could eat spaghetti, hamburgers and pizza every night and be happy,” he said.

Recognizing the boy’s disapproval of the cuisine, Hiskey had an idea.

“She came back with what looked like a taco but was pork vindaloo and paratha bread,” he said.

His son loved the dish, Overstreet said.

“He has tried all kinds of curry and never said a word, but he thought the taco was incredible,” he said. “It occurred to me that Indian food is kind of inaccessible.”

This was not news to Hiskey, who moved from India to America in 2011. The same year, she met her soon-to-be husband, who enjoyed her native cuisine but struggled with Indian dining customs.

“He basically would burrito or taco everything,” she said. “He loves the flavors of the food, just not the way we eat.”

He didn’t prefer the traditional method of tearing a piece of flatbread like chapati or phulka and pinching the rice and curry with his fingers.

Over the years of cooking for her partner, Hiskey began implementing different methods commercially.

“I started doing dishes as tacos, but they weren’t actually Mexican in any way,” she said. “It’s true Indian food, just packaged a little differently.”

After getting positive feedback from her customers, she knew she was onto something.

“That’s what started the conversation to do Indian food a little differently,” she said.

Overstreet, impressed with Hiskey’s creations, approached her with an idea: a fusion restaurant of Mexican and Indian cuisine.

Hiskey began researching Mexican dining customs and found the use of many ingredients familiar to her.

“I think it’s because our geography and climate are similar, but I was surprised to find that even cooking methods are very similar,” she said.

“That sent me down the rabbit hole of researching about the cuisine and the similarities, and I realized this could really work – plus everyone loves Mexican food here.”

Some of the items planned are a dip that blends guacamole and green chutney, a chipotle-roasted sweet potato enchilada with a butter chicken masala sauce, and tamarind maple-glazed pork ribs with apple slaw.

The unique menu extends into the full bar, with a hibiscus cosmopolitan and a house margarita offering a twist of Indian flavors.

Hiskey said there is still work to be done on the signature cocktail list. Overstreet said much renovation will have to be completed on the building that he described as nearly dilapidated.

The two plan to open their doors by mid-May, although Overstreet said that might be “aspirational.”

When they do, they are confident the restaurant will be well-received and a good addition to a community that shares the same values, they said.

“We know what we’re capable of and what Noreen is capable of,” Overstreet said. “People are going to get it.”

During her design of dishes, Hiskey has shared them with others and fielded some pushback about the ambitious flavors.

“Some have said that this could only work in a bigger city like Seattle. But that’s not true,” she said. “All of the people that have liked the cuisine have showed me how much more there is to Spokane palates.

“So why should this be reserved for bigger cities? We can do it here, and we can do it well.”