A California-born Indian street food chain has planted its first Tennessee flag in Smyrna, opening a location at 2160 Rock Springs Road that pairs fast-casual burritos with a full-service cocktail bar. Curry Up Now celebrated its grand opening on August 22, 2026, with free burritos for the first 250 guests, live entertainment, henna artistry, and prize drawings for a year of free meals.
The Smyrna franchise is owned and operated by Harsh and Vimal Patel, local residents of Smyrna for more than 20 years, according to Rutherford Source. As News Channel 5 Nashville notes, the menu leans into creative Indian street food flavors that combine traditional favorites with California-inspired mashups, including chicken tikka masala burritos and fried tandoori chicken sandwiches.
A Meat-and-Three Unlike Any Other Curry Up Now
What sets the Smyrna location apart from the rest of the chain is a dish built specifically for Middle Tennessee. The station reports the location features what it calls the Nashville Three platter, an item exclusive to this Smyrna restaurant. The same platter is described by the Rutherford Source's report as the “Nash & Three,” an Indian fusion take on the Southern meat-and-three built around tandoori-charred chicken chops, masala mac, peri peri corn, saag paneer, and naan.
The dual-concept space also houses Mortar and Pestle, a full-service cocktail bar serving Tennessee draft beers, Indian single-malt whiskey flights, and specialty drinks including a coffee martini called “The Filter Kaapi” and a mocktail dubbed “Chaat GPT,” per the same account. News Channel 5 Nashville separately confirms the location offers craft cocktails alongside a wide selection of non-alcoholic beverages. The menu includes halal options, and the Smyrna menu accommodates vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, keto, and paleo diets, according to Curry Up Now.
From a Bay Area Food Truck to a National Chain
Curry Up Now's roots go back to 2009, when it launched as a single food truck in Burlingame, California. The Rutherford Source's report and News Channel 5 Nashville differ slightly on the founders' names — the Rutherford Source attributes the launch to Akash and Rana Kapoor, while News Channel 5 Nashville credits Akash Kapoor and his wife. Either way, the brand has since grown into a fast-casual franchise chain operating 11 locations nationwide, per the Rutherford Source.
Smyrna's Growth Is Drawing National Chains
The Smyrna opening lands amid recent growth across Rutherford County, which gained about 6,300 residents, or 1.6%, between 2024 and 2025, according to USAFacts. That surge has civic implications beyond restaurant openings: the Town of Smyrna conducted a municipal special census in 2025 to update its headcount past the 53,070 figure recorded in the 2020 census, an effort relevant to state-shared tax distributions, which are affected by population, according to the Town of Smyrna.
The stakes around counting every new resident go beyond city hall bookkeeping. In April 2025, Tennessee lawmakers passed House Bill 780, sponsored by Smyrna's state representative, requiring state-shared tax revenues to be allocated based on annual UT Boyd Center population estimates rather than once-a-decade federal census tallies, according to the Tennessee House Republican Caucus. For a town adding restaurants, retail, and residents at a rapid clip, that shift means faster-updating tax dollars tied directly to population growth — the same growth that's now bringing California street food fusion to a Rock Springs Road strip in Smyrna.
