Walk into Patel's Indian Grocery in its new location and you'll get some of the old and some of the new. The old is the friendly atmosphere and the new is the additional products the store's owner Bhogilal Patel can offer.

The family-owned chain restaurant moved from its previous location next to Value City in Monroeville to settle across the street from Miracle Mile.

"We needed a bigger store, so, we moved," says Patel, smiling. "We're the biggest (Asian Indian grocery) store in Pittsburgh."

Monroeville has one of the largest concentrations of Asian Indians in the Pittsburgh area with 80 to 90 families in the Fox Hills Apartment area.

Patel has good reason to smile as a stream of customers walk in and out of the store with Hindi prayer music playing over the speaker.

Walk in and you may hear a snatch of the Indian national language or English.

Working behind the counter is Nick Patel, Bhogilal's nephew, who's been in America about four years.

Next to him are copies of Bollywood DVDs, Hindi CDs and underneath the counter are Indian newspapers and celebrity magazines.

Fresh piles of ginger, garlic, potatoes yucca and other vegetables sit atop a table next to refrigerators stocked with Indian ice cream, drinks and "chapati," which look like tortilla wraps.

In the back, customers can take their pick from a dozen types of rice.

Every morning begins with prayers to "Ganesh" the primary Hindi god.

From there it's all work for the Patels, who hail from families with a knack for business, particularly in India.

The chain began in Chicago in 1979 and has grown to 40 stores all over the United States.

Though Nick, 28, is four years removed from his home Gujarat, also known as the milk capital of Asia, the impressions of coming to the United States are still fresh, and he talks about them as he handles phone calls, the cash register and shows patrons where items are.

"Everything here is clean, there's not that much air pollution and the roads organized. Driver's drive in straight line instead of zig-zag in India."

He said Americans are very polite and like to talk.

"Here, people say, 'Hi, how are you?' In India nobody says hi," says Nick, as Asian Indian youth walk in the store and exchange greetings in English.

When talking with older patrons, Nick usually uses India's national language.

Among the new offerings are items that some may consider to merely be standard, like Indian tomato soup.

But Nick says that with a diet consisting mostly of rice, grains and peas, most Indians can't even get tomato soup, so they don't even order it when they come to the store.

"People here don't even buy it because they've never had it before."

Spices such as chili powder and cumen seeds are right across the isle from the rice and grain foods.

"Without spices, you can't make anything. It's like not being able to taste anything (without them)."

If customers aren't sure what to put on the food, they've got choices. There are 65 different types of gravies.

There's Indian snacks as well, most of which get fried in varying oils such as sunflower or vegetable oils.

Nick explains that there is a difference between the diets of south and northern Indians with north having heartier and more filling foods such as cheeses to eat because of the nature of their labor.

And you can't forget dessert -- Indian ice creams and fruit, particularly mango, one of the chief exports of the country.

Mango can be found in just about everything: ice cream, cookies and drinks along with pomengranate juice and canned coconut or sugar cane juice.

Tea is the coffee of India. The shelves are filled with all kinds of different flavors.

"In India, we don't have Starbucks. Usually a tea store, people go in the morning and drink tea and go to work."

Nick says with the labor market being different, Indians have more opportunity to have white collar jobs such as computer engineers or doctors, and that's made life a little easier.

"In India, people are known for their business (savvy)."