“A dream come true”: Satish Mehtani

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EDISON, NJ – Sneh Mehtani, was honored by Tom Lankey, Mayor of Edison as he unveiled a sign on August 9 on Oak Tree Road, dedicating a street named “Mehtani Way” to the woman who has built a massive and successful catering and restaurant business empire in the New York/New Jersey area.

Mrs. Mehtani opened up her first restaurant called The Moghul Room, in New York City’s Pennsylvania Hotel in 1983.

After much success of that restaurant, she asked her husband Satish, to help her expand to Edison, New Jersey in 1990 and in a matter of years, the Mehtani Restaurant Group had much to offer for the Indian community in New Jersey with their Indian and Asian restaurants: Moghul, Mehndi, Ming and Ming II as well as their cocktail bar called SM23 and a banquet hall named Mirage.

The Mehtani Restaurant Group has offered its catering service to 7640 weddings over the last 30 years and has served five presidents and prime ministers, including former president Bill Clinton, two Pakistani and two Indian Heads of State along with Bollywood stars who performed at Madison Square Garden, at the Moghul Room at the New York Penta Hotel across the street from the venue.

On December 11, 1993, Majority Leader Richard Gephardt hailed Mrs. Mehtani as a role model in community affairs on and said “on behalf of the USA, I salute you and we are proud of you being one of us. Mehtani is the best representative of concerned involved citizens.”

She was received by Mother Teresa in 1994 and was recognized by Bill Clinton at the White House in March of 1995 for his feeding of the less fortunate efforts.

In 2006, she won the New Jersey Restaurant Association’s Gold Plate Award and received the New Jersey Restaurant & Hospitality Association’s Restaurateur of the Year award in 2013; two years after she retired with her husband letting their son take over the empire.

While unveiling the sign, Lankey said that Mrs. Mehtani was well deserving of the honor and “it has been a wonderful experience knowing the Mehtanis.”

The phrase “We are what we leave behind” is inscribed on the sign to honor Mrs. Mehtani who has been suffering from Alzheimer’s since the last eight months.