About Little India-New York

Unlike the famous restaurant row on East 6th Street, which is officially known as "Little India" or "Curry Row," the dining corridor along Lexington Avenue in the 20s is almost exclusively referred to as Curry Hill. This neighborhood, located in Rose Hill between 25th and 30th Streets, has become the modern hub of South Asian cuisine in Manhattan. The area developed rapidly as Manhattan's Indian population nearly doubled between the 2000 and 2010 Census, and it is anchored by the famous Kalustyan's spice shop, which has been a neighborhood staple since 1944. Unlike its East Village counterpart, which is known for its boisterous, light-draped restaurants and tout-wielding staff, Curry Hill offers a more diverse and contemporary culinary landscape, featuring regional Indian specialties like South Indian dosas and upscale dining options alongside quick-service lunch buffets. The history of "Little India" on East 6th Street is a classic New York immigrant story, beginning in 1968 when Bangladeshi exchange student Manir Ahmed and his five brothers established the first restaurant, Shah Bagh. What started as a place for the brothers to enjoy home-cooked meals quickly turned into a commercial enterprise as passersby kept knocking on their door. Taking advantage of the hippie era's fascination with the Beatles' sitar phase, they realized "the hippie crowd would be willing to pay for chicken curry from the country of the yogis". The brothers operated as a cooperative, sharing expenses for spices, buying rice in bulk, and lending cooks to one another, eventually opening several restaurants on the block with names like Kismoth and Romna. At its peak in the 1990s, the block boasted 30 Bengali and Indian restaurants. Today, however, this iconic strip has been significantly impacted by gentrification and rising rents, leaving only a handful of surviving establishments such as Milon and Panna II, which are famous for their thousands of twinkling colored Christmas lights and their unique BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) policy.