Charminar Express Brings Hyderabadi Street Food to Denver

Charminar Express brings Indian classics and Hyderabad street food specialties to breweries, farmers’ markets and festivals across Denver.

But this isn’t just another food truck. It’s a real-life business school project for MBA student Aravind Gurram, a University of Colorado graduate with a master’s in management information systems who is now pursuing his Master of Business Administration at Avila University.

“Charminar Express is more than a food truck to me — it’s a business built using project management principles,” says Gurram, who founded the truck two years ago. “Every day is different. We manage weather, equipment, permits, scheduling, staffing, logistics, inventory and travel while maintaining consistent food quality.”

Gurram now employs six people, and recently bought a second, larger truck to expand operations. His ambitions aren’t purely business-oriented, though. He wanted an industry where he could stay connected to his heritage in his work.

“Food has always been the strongest connection to my home and culture,” says Gurram, who is originally from Hyderabad, India. “Every event we attend is an opportunity to introduce someone to authentic Indian food for the first time, and that’s what motivates us every day.”

One of those authentic food items is the frankie, a Mumbai-style wrap that’s easy to enjoy at the events Charminar Express services.

The frankie’s defining move is a thin layer of egg cooked directly onto the flatbread, which you don’t see until you take your first bite. The egg provides both a soft chew and structural integrity to the wrapper, a delicious layer that absorbs excess juices and the spiced curry. Here, the chicken tikka frankie comes loaded with saucy bits of chicken, crisp red onion and shredded lettuce.

Gurram also wanted his menu to reflect his hometown’s food scene. “When I moved to Colorado, I noticed there were very few places serving authentic Hyderabadi street food—the kind I grew up eating,” he says.

Hyderabad is famous for its rendition of biryani, which is more heavily spiced and steams rice directly with marinating meat, unlike other versions that simply layer par-cooked ingredients together. “I’m especially proud of our Hyderabadi dum biryani,” Gurram says. But he also wants people to try lesser-known Hyderabad specialties. “Dishes like punugulu, mirchi bajji and masala puri are incredibly popular in Hyderabad but are still relatively undiscovered here in Colorado.”

Here’s a quick crash course. Punugulu is a basket of fried fritters (formed from fermented rice and lentil batter), with a few chutneys for dipping. Mirchi bajji is another crispy snack: battered green chilies, fried whole, but this time in a chickpea flour batter. Puri are small, puffed wheat bread spheres, which form the base of various chaats, or snack plates, which get doused in yogurts, pomegranate seeds, crunchy garnishes and herbs, or curry gravy, as in the case of masala puri.

Charminar Express still offers familiar dishes and classic curries: butter chicken, tikka masala, saag and korma, plus the obligatory naan, samosas and mango lassi (which is a must during these dry Denver summers).

Familiar, though, does not mean rushed. “Some of my sauces take 6 hours to simmer,” he tells us. For the butter curry, he stews onions for over an hour before adding tomatoes to cook down, then enriches the sauce with a mix of coconut cream and dairy. “Most butter chicken just tastes like tomato puree and cream,” he says. Not his, which is lighter in color, subtly spiced, and finished with flecks of fresh coriander.

The samosas are another well-executed example. The potato filling is thoroughly spiced and somehow deeply savory, addicting with the side of cooling mint chutney. (You can also order the samosas as a chaat plate, where they come covered in chutney and chickpeas.)

But between batches of batter, curry and chutney, Gurram is already thinking several steps ahead. He pulls out his phone and shows off an idea he’s tinkering with, a software platform to connect food trucks to customers in need of catering services.

“My goal is to combine entrepreneurship, technology and hospitality to strengthen Colorado’s food truck community,” Gurram says. As a business student, he can’t help but think bigger than his own operation. To him, long-term success looks stronger when the whole food scene has more ways to grow.

Charminar Express is a fully mobile food truck that serves breweries, community events and farmers’ markets in the greater Denver area. You can find its weekly schedule on Instagram @charminarexpress.denver. For more information, visit www.charminarexpressdenver.com