Operations

How Sankranti built its own fast-casual Indian food playbook

Srinivasa “Nimms” Nimmagadda and his team spent years developing a fast-casual Indian food concept playbook through Sankranti Indian Kitchen. Now the company is ready to grow.

Source: Sankranti Indian Kitchen

September 14, 2026

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Srinivasa "Nimms" Nimmagadda spent years answering a seemingly simple question: How do you turn Indian food into a fast-casual concept that can scale across markets without losing what makes the cuisine distinctive?

The answer went beyond menu development. Since 2018, Sankranti Indian Kitchen has refined recipes, streamlined kitchen workflows and ordering systems, determined labor needs and reworked the overall customer experience.

Along the way,Sankranti which participated in FastCasual's 2023 Perfect Pitch, developed a fast-casual playbook for a category Nimmagadda says didn't have one.

"We've simplified the traditional Indian menu, developed proprietary sauces, marinades and spice blends, standardized recipes and portions, centralized selected production and engineered restaurant workflows for speed and consistency," Nimmagadda told FastCasual. "This reduces dependence on highly specialized chefs at every location and makes the concept much more repeatable."

Now, it's time for Sankranti to expand. Two fast-casual restaurants are planned for metro Atlanta, a precursor to a broader growth plan.

Photo courtesy of Sankranti Indian Kitchen

From sit-down to fast casual

Sankranti grew out of a large fine-dining operation that Nimmagadda and his team opened in Johns Creek, Georgia, in 2018. The 23,000-square-foot restaurant and exhibit hall performed well, prompting the team to explore bringing Indian food to consumers through a more streamlined format.

"Our goal was to take authentic Indian flavors and develop a simpler, standardized and repeatable QSR model that could appeal to mainstream American consumers and eventually scale nationally," Nimmagadda said. "We quickly realized there was no established Indian QSR playbook for what we were trying to accomplish. So we set out to write our own."

The company opened its first Sankranti Indian Kitchen fast-casual location in Dunwoody in 2022, followed by a Decatur/Emory Village location in 2023 and an outpost at 85 5th Street in Georgia Tech's Technology Research Building in December 2023. The Dunwoody and Decatur locations closed in late 2025. But Nimmagadda said each location exposed Sankranti to different customers and operating conditions, helping the team evaluate everything from menu preferences and pricing to kitchen workflow, labor needs and speed of service.

"Dunwoody taught us invaluable lessons about which menu items resonated with mainstream American customers, along with pricing, kitchen workflow, labor and speed of service," Nimmagadda said.

Emory provided different intelligence involving convenience, digital ordering and menu accessibility while serving a younger and more diverse customer base. The Georgia Tech location, meanwhile, put the concept into a high-volume environment where those systems could be tested under pressure.

"Georgia Tech then gave us an opportunity to apply those lessons in a demanding, high-volume environment and further validate the model," Nimmagadda said.

The differentiation

For Sankranti, differentiation isn't limited to the food. Nimmagadda pointed to the fast-food operating system as a critical part of the concept. The system simplifies traditional Indian cuisine by standardizing recipes and portions, developing proprietary sauces and spice blends, and designing workflows that can deliver consistent food without requiring every restaurant to rely on highly specialized chefs.

Photo courtesy of Sankranti Indian Kitchen

The company also tested the concept in settings beyond traditional restaurants, including corporate dining, pop-ups and the Georgia World Congress Center, where the brand has served convention attendees from across the United States.

"These very different environments exposed us to a broad range of customers and helped validate the appeal of Indian food among mainstream American consumers," Nimmagadda said.

Then Sankranti introduced its food and operations to people from around the world at Atlanta's FIFA Fan Festival during the 2026 World Cup. The event offered more than just exposure.

"It was validation that we've built a stronger restaurant and a stronger brand," Nimmagadda said.

Next steps

Sankranti is now moving ahead with two Atlanta-area restaurants. The Buckhead location is planned for 3420 Piedmont Road N.E., where the company's website lists a 1,560-square-foot, ground-floor space. The downtown location is planned for 27 Piedmont Avenue N.E.

The restaurants will reflect the smaller, more efficient prototype Sankranti developed through years of testing.

"Our new-generation restaurants are being designed around a more efficient footprint of approximately 1,500 square feet to 2,500 square feet, based on location availability," Nimmagadda said.

The model also supports throughput, digital ordering, pickup, delivery and catering.

After years of testing and refining, Sankranti is also focused on growth. Nimmagadda said the goal is to have five Atlanta-area locations signed and planned by the end of 2027.

But that's just the beginning.

"With Atlanta as our home base and several strong growth markets throughout the Southeast, we believe we're now ready to take that playbook and begin the next stage of Sankranti's expansion," Nimmagadda said.