In a quiet corner of downtown St. Pete in the former Chi-town Beefs and Dogs space, a new Indian restaurant introduces Bengali street food to the Sunshine City.

First-time restaurateur and founder Amita Mukherjee quietly opened Mowgli's Tiffin earlier this week at 165 Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Street North, bringing kati rolls and other dishes from the streets of Kolkata to the EDGE District.

“Mowgli's Tiffin celebrates the rich tapestry of Bengali culture,” Mukherjee said to St. Pete Rising. “The street food we are making is akin to the delicious bites you’d find on the streets of India.”

The quaint, 540-square-foot restaurant is named after the wild, curious, and adventurous boy named Mowgli from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Additionally, the Indian word tiffin means lunchbox and, in certain parts of India, a light meal or snack eaten anytime between lunch and dinner.

Mukherjee's parents immigrated to the United States from India over 50 years ago. She was raised in St. Pete and says she hasn’t found many restaurants in town serving the Indian dishes she misses from her homeland. In particular, street food holds a special place in her heart, so Mowgli's will serve dishes that remind her of West Bengal in eastern India.