Twenty Years in the Papers

When Payal Saha opened the first store in 2002, she had no restaurant experience and no budget for a full staff. What helped, as our own story tells it, was word of mouth and good New York press. Twenty years of that press is a decent way to tell our story, so here it is, in order.

Every story below is in our press archive, newest first, linked to the original. This is the short version.

2006: the hometown paper

The first piece in our archive came from home. On March 29, 2006, The Telegraph in Kolkata ran "Where Bengals on a roll," a story about the Kolkata woman who had taken her city's street food to Manhattan. It is the piece that reported Anil Bathwal had designed the stores, with original Hindi film posters from the 1960s and 1970s on the walls. That story is told in the poster walls.

Six weeks later, on May 12, 2006, the Houston Chronicle's Cook's Tour blog ran "I want my kati rolls!", written from the road by a food writer already missing the rolls from our Midtown store, achari paneer among them. New York was not the only place paying attention.

2010 to 2013: the food writers

Through the next stretch, the kati roll became something New York food writers compared and ranked, with headlines like "The Best Kathi Roll in NYC" (Adventures in Desi Cooking, March 2011).

• Serious Eats, July 2010. "A Sandwich a Day: Kati Rolls from The Kati Roll Company." The writer called the achari paneer pretty great and promised a return trip for the egg and potato roll.
• Food Republic, July 2011. "Wrap Update: The Kati Roll."
• Gothamist, March 2012. "Satisfy Your Late-Night Indian Cravings At Kati Roll Co. In Midtown." The late night has always been part of it.
• The Wall Street Journal, April 2013. "The Great Lure of Indian Fast Food."
• The Hindu, July 2013. "Spicing up the Big Apple."

2016 and 2017: the trade press

By 2016 the story had changed from "where to find a good roll" to "what is this company going to become." On December 9, 2016, Eater NY ran "Kati Roll Wants to Be New York's Next Big Fast Casual Export," a feature on Payal and Anil that also gives the size of the first store: 300 square feet, in Greenwich Village, in 2002.

On March 17, 2017, Nation's Restaurant News named The Kati Roll Company one of its Breakout Brands of 2017. For a company that started with two people in a tiny shop, being on that list mattered.

2024: Texas

On March 20, 2024, QSR Magazine ran "The Kati Roll Company Arrives in Downtown Dallas," announcing our first store outside New York, at 1322 Elm Street. It was also our first franchise location. Fast Casual followed on March 26 with "The Kati Roll opening 1st franchise."

That August, Local Profile reported the second Texas store: "The Kati Roll Company Opens Second Location In Plano, Texas," on August 26, two days after it opened on State Highway 121. More on both in Kati Roll in Texas.

2026: across the river

In June 2026 three outlets covered our first store in New Jersey. Hoodline ran "Greenwich Village Kati Roll Darling Storms Into Jersey City" on June 20. Jersey Digs followed on June 25 with "NYC's The Kati Roll Company Opening Jersey City Outpost," and NJBIZ on June 29 with "Kati Roll Co. to open first NJ location in Jersey City." The store opened that July on Bergen Avenue. Read Kati Roll comes to Journal Square.

Read the originals

Some of these pieces live on only in web archives now, and our archive links to those copies where the original page is gone. If you are a writer working on a story about the kati roll, Kolkata street food or the company, the press page has every story we have found, and a contact for press questions.

The best review is still the one you write yourself, standing on MacDougal Street at 1am with a roll in your hand.