By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Manny Patel can’t help himself. Because he is perpetually grateful for the community that has boosted his local businesses, he always finds ways to show his appreciation.
This week he celebrated the successful first two years of his Indian restaurant, The Curry Lounge, by inviting his loyal customers and the greater community to enjoy the restaurant’s buffet for free.
By day’s end, he and his partners had welcomed nearly 330 people into the restaurant for the anniversary celebration. Though the number of guests didn’t quite reach the first anniversary’s 575 diners, Patel was happy to
“Two years ago, we opened our doors, and you welcomed us with open arms,” Patel said on Monday. “This is our way of saying thanks to everyone for making these past two years so special.”
Mike and Traci Stump wanted to be part of the celebration. The Findlay couple love Indian food and discovered The Curry Lounge after their favorite Indian restaurant closed in Findlay. Now, they make the 30-minute trip several times a year for the restaurant’s spicy cuisine and especially the butter chicken and bone-in chicken.
“We tried a little bit of everything,” Mike said when asked what they ate from the buffet. “We like spicy food, especially the complex flavors of Indian food.”
Ila and Ravi Shankar are frequent customers of Patel’s restaurant, not only because they are from India, but also because they are close friends with Patel and consider him to be an amazing person and businessman.
“We are part of the local Indian community and wanted to be here to celebrate The Curry Lounge’s second anniversary with Manny,” said Ila, who owns Satrangi (which means colorful in Hindi), an Indian boutique in The Shops at Fallen Timbers. “He is so generous and believes in giving back to his community, which is a part of Indian culture.”
In addition to the Curry Lounge first and second anniversary celebrations, Patel is known for handing out thousands and thousands of Dilly Bars from the Dairy Queen he owns and operates with his wife Doli.
The Dilly Bar giveaway to schools, first responders, banks and other service providers, is done each year in honor of his daughter, Yana’s birthday. He dreamed up the idea when he owned a Dairy Queen in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, as a way to thank the community and to celebrate her second birthday.
The first year in Bowling Green, he gave away 6,000 ice cream treats from his BG DQ. The second year, more than 7,000 Dilly Bars were handed out, and last year, for Yana’s fifth birthday, more than 10,000 treats were delivered across the community.
“That’s just the type of person he is,” Ila commented. “It’s so nice he continues that tradition with The Curry Lounge.”
The Shankars live in Perrysburg and also choose to visit the BG restaurant because of the quality of the food.
They are vegetarians and find the Gobi Manchurian, a fried cauliflower dish, and Malai Kofta, a fried potato-and-paneer dumplings in a rich creamy gravy, to be among their favorite choices whenever they visit.
Atonn and Jodie Smeltzer and their fifth-grade son Bradey decided to check out The Curry Lounge for the anniversary celebration.
“We have loved Indian food for a long time and had talked about visiting the restaurant, but never found the time. The anniversary celebration was the perfect opportunity to try it,” Atonn said. “And the butter chicken blew my mind; it was so good.”
The fried potato balls, paneer, naan and noodles, “were totally worth it,” Bradey exclaimed. They plan to be back.
And Patel plans to continue finding ways to thank the community for supporting him and his partners in their locally owned businesses.
