Preeti was born and raised in Chennai, India, but her family heritage & history were never her fondest memories of home.

As a lifelong cookbook collector, a lover of good eats, and a person deeply enamored by travel, most of her valuable memories were rooted in food—food cooked by family members, but also, food eaten while exploring her motherland, freed by adulthood.

Cheeni explores Preeti’s food memories from then to now, across both locations. Her interest in cooking Indian food stemmed from her desire to reconnect with the culture she came from, though she felt ever so disconnected, especially after making the United States her home.

Cheeni: Durham is based on this principle of reconnection, serving homestyle, larger plates, inspired by the stories that brought Preeti to where she is now, and the food memories that shaped her perception of her first home.

Cheeni Indian Food Emporium serves a lunch menu that feels more like fusion, but the dinner menu is inspired by Preeti’s reconnection with herself, as a chef, who she is now, as the owner & operator of two restaurants, and who she’s become, as she’s grown in that role, and as a person.

Cheeni has grown, changed shape, and completely evolved since it began, as all the best endeavors do.

As a restaurant, the evolution from fast-casual to sit down dining was a significant change. With no formal experience in kitchens or restaurants, Preeti & Amy were thrown into a whole new world with Cheeeni: Durham—once daunting, and now, more so an extension of their home.

With this change came the bar, additional James Beard nods, and plenty of newfound attention. This added spotlight provided Preeti with the opportunity to use her kitchen at Cheeni: Durham for something greater than just dinner service; now, it operates as a commissary, as well as a hub for classes, collaborations, and a community meal program.

The jump from one to two restaurants came with its own set of changes. At our RTP location, we serve lunch and dinner, but with a totally different concept than our Downtown Durham spot. Cheeni’s newest evolution features a nostalgic menu from Preeti’s early days in North Raleigh, as well as a brand-new, preset menu for dinner, inspired by the abundance of a family-style dining experience. That menu rotates monthly, and features six courses.

We often recieve reviews that label our food as “fusion” or “inauthentic”, when in reality, there’s an element of reinvention necessary to everything that we do.

Preeti’s story is one of reinvention, and her restaurants are no different. Regional cooking practices may differ, and may need adaptation stateside, but North Carolina is rich in fertility and agricultural diversity, lending itself exceptionally well to the locally-driven Indian cuisine that we cook at both locations.

We choose to reinvent wherever possible—how we staff, how we design our menus, how we approach service, and sometimes, how we cook.

It’s an effort to create something real, personal, intimate, and reflective of truly, who we are, where we came from, and where we’re going.