A new, family-run Indian supermarket and restaurant will soon officially open for business.
Located on Memorial Avenue, Namaste Indian Supermarket and Restaurant offers a fully vegetarian fast-food menu and shelves stocked with Indian and other Asian goods that are hard to find at other local grocery stores.
Panipuri, Ragda Samosa, Pav Bhaji, sandwiches, a variety of drinks, and much more will be on the restaurant menu for shoppers to enjoy.
With a growing Asian population in Orillia, business owners say it will help fill a local gap for Indian and other Asian foods, noting some local residents sometimes have to travel to Barrie and beyond to get the produce and supplies they’re looking for.
“It’s a long way for them,” said co-owner Sima Patel.
“We are living here for a long time, and we saw that the communities like Asian communities, specifically Indians and Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lankans, they are going up, they are coming up and they have to go to Barrie,” Patel said. “We saw that opportunity here, and that's why we thought it's going to be great for the town.”
As part of a chain of businesses that originated in the GTA, the new restaurant and supermarket recent held a soft open, and the business is slated to officially open next week.
Although it isn't fully open yet, the business has already generated interest among numerous local communities, the owners say.
“We are soft open here, so we are getting some more inventory this week,” said Patel. “Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Canadians … they are coming more and more, they are excited.”
