When walking into Patel Brothers you’re greeted with a familiar piece of India – a rickshaw.
“It’s just brings back a little nostalgia, India flavor of the good old days back in India,” said Vice President of Patel Brothers, Swetal Patel.
It’s that nostalgic Indian flavor that inspired a family business.
“Patel Brothers was started out by Mufet and Talashi Patel, the first store was in Chicago in 1974,” said Patel. “At the end of the day what we are is a great American success story – two brothers coming over from a rural village in India started off with a small store and today there are 54 stores across the country.”
For over forty years, Patel Brothers grew into the country’s premiere authentic Indian food grocery store chain.
And now it’s expanded to Naperville.
“Naperville has been on our radar for about three or four years now and it just so happened that this location became available. And through the City of Naperville, various other people and the mayor we were able to secure this location and build out this beautiful plaza,” explained Patel.
Located off of Ogden and Jefferson Avenue, the once Menards turned vacant in the early 2000s and sat empty for years.
“Looking at that building it was literally the poster child of legacy vacant buildings in Naperville, and so of all the empty spaces that we were looking at that was at the top of the list. So that was a great one to knock off,” said Mayor Steve Chirico.
Just a couple years ago Mayor Steve Chirico met the Patels at an India Day parade, which led to a welcome new addition to the community.
“And of course the Naperville market is a huge market for them,” added Mayor Chirico. “[Naperville has a] big Indian American population so they knew that this was a strong market for them so this fit perfectly.”
With fresh produce, an in store bakery, and a grab and go café, the Patel Brothers Naperville location is now the company’s largest store to date.
And after being open for a couple of weeks, the store has drawn life-long Indian food lovers and those new to trying the flavors.
“We are Indian so obviously we need the Indian food and everything is at our level. And once you are coming to this store you will get everything, you don’t have to go anywhere else,” said Anjana Ray, a long-time shopper of Patel Brothers.
“This is kind of the first time I’m going to delve into cooking Indian food in my own kitchen so I’m excited to have this grocery store here, available to me so I can get the kind of products to try those recipes out,” said Kristen Krchhiane, a first-time shopper of Patel Brothers
The almost $13 million build out of the store includes the land, store, and strip mall that will eventually have four restaurants and a beauty parlor.
Patel brothers and the City of Naperville are currently planning a special grand opening of the store for sometime in March.
Bringing the flavors of India to Naperville for years to come.
Naperville News 17’s Christine Lena reports.
