Restaurateur Jimmy Rizvi has lived in Jersey City for over 20 years while building some of Manhattan’s most recognized Indian restaurants: GupShup, which opened in 2018 in Gramercy, and Bungalow, the wildly popular East Village spot with host and judge of MasterChef India, Vikas Khanna.
All that time, he watched JC’s massive South Asian community — one of the largest in the country — dine largely at the takeouts and casual spots on Newark Avenue. Now he’s bringing his style of restaurant across the river. Punjab Meet House opens Friday, July 3, at 25 Christopher Columbus Drive, at Greene Street, at Exchange Place.
Today, about 12 percent of Jersey City’s residents identify as Asian Indian, according to the latest American Community Survey estimates, with India Square recognized as the heart of the region’s Indian American community. Yet, as Rizvi points out, the dining options haven’t kept pace. “There’s not really the kind of restaurants we build in New York City,” he says. Shaila Rizvi designed the restaurant with Indian imports…