When Gitanjali Shrestha moved from Pokhara, Nepal, to Longmont in 2007, she wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do. Up until then, she’d been working in hospitality, most recently as the public relations manager at the Shangri-La Village, one of Pokhara’s most prestigious five-star resorts.
Gitanjali grew up cooking. “I had a passion. I’d take hours in the kitchen, as much to impress myself as to impress others,” she says. Even as her career took her along the front-of-house and client relations course, she still kept an interest in cooking: “At Shangri-La, I’d walk into the kitchen and get the cooks to teach me the dishes.”
When Gitanjali arrived in America, one of her first impulses was to open a restaurant. “I didn’t have a lot of money when I moved here, but I had a lot of courage,” she says, adding that she almost opened a spot in Louisville in 2008.
Instead, she started working as a certified nursing assistant and spent four years doing end-of-life care before opening her own home-care company, Helping Angels, in 2011. “It was hard, but I’m so glad I learned,” she says. Helping Angels is still up and running.
So for Gitanjali, the 2022 opening of Indian Bites in one of Longmont’s many strip malls had been a long
time coming.
She launched the eatery with her husband, Bhaskar Shrestha, who had moved stateside from Kathmandu in January 2021. The two had met a few years earlier at a party at Bhaskar’s restaurant Godhuli, a cozy spot in the Nepalese capital Bhaskar had owned and operated for the better part of a decade. “The food was so good, it almost made me cry,” says Gitanjali.
Indian Bites is a family affair. Gitanjali handles the dining room with grace while Bhaskar churns out scratch-made Indian and Nepalese classics. Gitanjali’s mom, Ranjana, and her brother, Sudhir, are also common features both upfront and in the kitchen.
“It took years, but here we are,” says Gitanjali, beaming. “As an immigrant, it takes time to learn the system.” Before opening Indian Bites, Gitanjali and Bhaskar were serving similar dishes from the Hurry 4 Curry food truck, which is still in operation under the direction of her brother, Biswant.
Much of the menu is made up of the kind of stuff Bhaskar used to serve at Godhuli, with a few alterations and concessions being added for Western palates. “Americans and Europeans like the creamy stuff,” says Gitanjali. “In traditional Nepalese cooking there’s not a lot of cream.”
The menu is broken down into sections, which include masala, korma, curry, saag, vindaloo, jalfrezi, madras and kahari, all of which are available with the choice of chicken, shrimp, lamb and fish. The signature entrees also feature a festive interpretation of butter chicken. Don’t leave without getting the paneer pakora, a dish of brightly-colored cheese curds, largely distinguishable from their Wisconsin cousins by the presence of house-made mint chutney served alongside instead of ketchup or ranch.
“We make our food with love and that makes a huge difference,” says Gitanjali. “I am literally one mile from my home. Longmont is home. I love this community.”
Gitanjali says Indian Bites came from a shared fantasy between her and Bhaskar, one that was discussed throughout their courtship. “This is almost like a dream come true, to find a soulmate,” she says.
It also doesn’t hurt that the sauces are all made fresh daily with spice blends that Bhaskar has been honing throughout the course of his life. The smell of freshly ground cumin and coriander seed being added to the simmering pots can be picked up from down the block. The house-made chai is also a must, arriving fresh from a cauldron Gitanjali prepares each morning.
Dishes arrive in heaping portions and are most sensibly eaten with a helping of garlic naan. “We are not stingy,” Gitanjali says with a smile. “Our customers deserve the best.”
Gitanjali says that while she’s happy to see Indian Bites take off, she has no intention of stopping here: “We are really interested in Estes Park.”
