Indians do not own any of those either, or any of the rest of the 27 Indian food businesses on that block between First and Second Avenues, or most of those in similar pockets all over New York City (not to mention London).
Behind such "Indian" restaurants, behind such signature "Indian" dishes like tandoori chicken and seasoned spinach with cheese, are Bangladeshi owners, Bangladeshi cooks, and probably Bangladeshi waiters and busboys. Over a quarter of a century, Bangladeshis have all but cornered the market in neighbourhood "Indian" restaurants popular with diners on modest budgets.
"I'd say 95 percent of New York's Indian restaurants belong to Bangladeshis," said Akbar Chowdhury, a daytime manager of Great India.
But it doesn't end there. Almost all of those Bangladeshis come from one sliver of Bangladesh: Sylhet, a region of emerald green ricefields and dense tea gardens on the country's eastern border, where the Gangetic plain meets the rugged hills of the isolated Indian Northeast and Myanmar.