06/26/2026
Spice Trail started with a conversation at a bar. Someone asked Sujata where they could find great Indian food in Chattanooga. She laughed and said, “My house, of course.” Then she thought… why can’t I be the one to do it?
Before the restaurant, before the pop-ups, Sujata grew up in Bihar, India, learning to cook from her mother. Her mother was unusual in that she cooked dishes from many regions of India, not just her own, and she taught Sujata to build flavors from scratch — layered, complex, and made with care. Those early recipes have never left her.
Sujata moved to the United States almost three decades ago, studied accounting at Syracuse, raised her family, and eventually landed in Chattanooga — where she realized she deeply missed the kind of food she had known her whole life. The idea of a restaurant felt too big at first. So she started smaller: pop-up dinners, hosted at a local restaurant, beginning in June of 2019. They sold out.
The rest followed from there. We’re grateful every week that it did.
📍 Spice Trail · Modern Indian · Chattanooga, TN