Vimala's Curryblossom Cafe is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

restaurant on Franklin Street in

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...

. Vimala Rajendran, an Indian

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

to the United States, opened the restaurant in 2010. The restaurant purveys home-style

Indian cuisine Indian cuisine consists of a variety of regional and traditional cuisines native to India. Given the diversity in soil, climate, culture, ethnic groups, and occupations, these cuisines vary substantially and use locally available spices, he ...

, and

Southern food The cuisine of the Southern United States encompasses diverse food traditions of several regions, including Tidewater, Appalachian, Lowcountry, Cajun, Creole, and Floribbean cuisine. In recent history, elements of Southern cuisine have spread t ...

with local produce and pasture-raised meats. The company has provided free lunches in support of

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s at various events.

History

Vimala Rajendran, born 1959, was born in Kerala and raised in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, attending college in

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Plac ...

at age 17. She married at age 19 and moved to

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...

, to join her husband while pregnant with her first child. Rajendran returned to India in 1983 and returned to the US to Chapel Hill in 1985. She began selling food in Chapel Hill in 1994 with weekly donation-based community dinners; two years prior, she had cooked a large dinner for neighbors and was motivated to continue. They also served a source of income for Rajendran's family. As a dependent spouse, she did not have legal authorization to work, and she served take-out dinners in an "underground" status from her house until 2010. Vimala's Curryblossom Cafe opened on May 31, 2010, with $80,000 in community loans. Rajendran had learned about the practice of

microcredit :''This article is specific to small loans, often provided in a pooled manner. For direct payments to individuals for specific projects, see Micropatronage. For financial services to the poor, see Microfinance. For small payments, see Micropayme ...

after a trip to

Jamkhed Jamkhed is a census town in Ahmednagar district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Jamkhed is in between the Ahmednagar and Beed. Jamkhed is very well known for its comprehensive rural health project CRHP. It also has Jamkhed homeopathic col ...

. The restaurant made $650,000 in its first year. Vimala's received the $100,000 Mission Main Street Grant from

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...

in September 2015, one of 20 small businesses. At the time, Vimala's was $300,000 in debt, partially due to the high costs of paying living wage for the restaurant employees, sourcing quality local ingredients and general operating costs of a restaurant.

Operations

The restaurant's fare consists of home-style

and North Carolinan cuisine. Rajendran's daughter Anjali was the restaurant's

pastry chef A pastry chef or pâtissier (; the French female version of the word is pâtissière ), is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods. They are employed in large hotels, bi ...

, while son Rajeev and daughter Manju work for Vimala's as needed. Rajendran is the owner of the restaurant, located in The Courtyard at 431 West Franklin Street, Suite 415. Vimala's has hosted events providing free lunch to refugees. Rajendran promotes Global Neighborhood Day on the Sunday after

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...

to celebrate many cultures of the U.S. by hosting a free buffet dinner.

Fare

Rajendran cooks many of her mother's recipes of the

cuisine of Kerala Kerala cuisine is a culinary style originated in the Kerala, a state on the southwestern Malabar Coast of India. Kerala cuisine offers a multitude of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes prepared using fish, poultry and red meat with rice a ...

, like sambar. It is also inspired by

Maharashtrian cuisine Maharashtrian or Marathi cuisine is the cuisine of the Marathi people from the Indian state of Maharashtra. It has distinctive attributes, while sharing much with other Indian cuisines. Traditionally, Maharashtrians have considered their food to ...

, where Rajendran grew up, and

Punjabi cuisine Punjabi cuisine is a culinary style originating in the Punjab, a region in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, which is now divided in an Indian part to the east and a Pakistani part to the west. This cuisine has a rich tradition o ...

, especially

samosa A samosa () or singara is a fried Indian pastry with a savory filling, including ingredients such as spiced potatoes, onions, and peas. It may take different forms, including triangular, cone, or half-moon shapes, depending on the region. Samo ...

s. The restaurant's menu also includes

tandoori chicken Tandoori chicken is a Cuisine of the Indian subcontinent, South Asian dish of chicken (food), chicken marinated in yogurt and spices and roasting, roasted in a ''tandoor'', a cylindrical clay oven. The dish is now popular world-wide. The moder ...

pulled pork Pulled pork is an American barbecue dish, more specifically a dish of the Southern U.S., based on shredded barbecued pork shoulder. It is typically slow-smoked over wood (usually outdoors); indoor variations use a slow cooker. The meat is th ...

, chole,

dosa Dosa may refer to: People * Bogoljub Mitić Đoša, Serbian actor * Csaba Dosa (born 1951), Romanian athlete * Dosa ben Harkinas * Dosa ben Saadia (935 - 1018), Talmudic scholar and philosopher * Dosa or Dossa Júnior * Edward Dosa-Wea Neufville ...

collard greens Collard is a group of certain loose-leafed cultivars of ''Brassica oleracea'', the same species as many common vegetables including cabbage ( Capitata group) and broccoli ( Italica group). Collard is a member of the Viridis group of ''Brassica ...

, chai, and

cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indonesia. They are rec ...

-chocolate brownies.

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Vimala's Curryblossom Cafe vegan options available

Vegan & Vegetarian Restaurants in North Carolina, NC
{{Portal bar, Companies, Food, United States Indian restaurants in the United States 2010 establishments in North Carolina Restaurants in North Carolina