From curries hot and spicy to chutneys sweet and chunky, the Chaat Café has a variety of flavors to tantalize the palate of the uninitiated as well as the local Indian community. Chaat means "appetizer."

"We've had a great response," says San Franciscan Melissa Bailey, who opened the cafe doors on Oct. 27 with her partners Nick Goddard of Los Gatos and Mani Kadir of Fremont. The trio met while working on the software sales force of Webex Corporation, where Goddard and Kadir remain employed. Bailey quit Webex to spend full time with the cafe. The soft opening climaxed a summer of remodeling. "We ran a small ad in the local Indian newspaper, so we've had some Indians plus lots of Los Gatans who want to try something new."

The kitchen is run by chef Shafi Zahoor, an 18-year veteran of cooking his native Indian dishes. "The entire kitchen is Indian or Pakistani," notes Bailey of the staff that deftly tends the two big tandoor ovens and bakes the naan fresh daily. The former Delizioso Deli and Café has been transformed by Bailey. Pumpkin, yellow and maroon walls warm the eye. Display counters, a huge refrigerator, a pizza oven and a wall have been cleared away to reveal the kitchen, where food is made fresh with each order. The style is casual. Customers order and pick up their food at the counter.

Bailey recommends several "beginner" dishes. There's chicken tika masala—made milder because the curry is diffused by a tomato base and a thick yogurt sauce. It is priced a la carte at $6.95, but as a dinner including basmati rice, a vegetable of the day, naan and dal (lentil soup), it sells for $9.95.

Wraps are either cheese ($4.99) or chicken or lamb ($5.99).

Appetizers are varied: aloo tiki is two potato patties made with green chili and onion spices, lightly fried and served with a cholay (garbanzo bean) sauce; chicken pakora is eight to 10 strips of chicken, dipped in a chickpea batter and fried. "This is good finger food for kids," Bailey says. It also comes as cheese squares called paneer pakora (mild cheese batter). Samosa is a fried pastry shell, looking somewhat "like an elf's hat," filled with cumin potatoes and with cholay on the side. Most appetizers run $3.50 each.

Daily specials and dinner entrees feature halal (specially prepared Indian meat), chicken, lamb and seafood. "We even have a catfish wrap," Bailey points out.

Bailey, Goddard and Kadir purchased the name and menu of Chaat Café in Fremont, where the three used to lunch frequently. "So much of what you apply in the restaurant business is based on what you experience as a diner," Bailey, 37, muses, noting that her entry into the field has involved a big change both in her lifestyle and life's work. But her skills from years of selling software have not been wasted.

"I'm just selling something different—this food we all love so much. It's so much fun, because I'm learning a whole new culture as well," she adds. A grand opening is planned after the holidays.

Chaat Café, located at 133 N. Santa Cruz Ave. in Los Gatos, is open daily, 11:30 a.m.­9:30 p.m. Take-out orders may be faxed to 408.354.8962 or called in to 408.395.1784.