Taj India, a popular Indian restaurant on Highland Avenue in Birmingham for nearly three decades, will be forced to relocate this summer due to the planned demolition of Highland Plaza and construction of a new apartment complex on the site of a former Western Supermarket.

“Alabama’s oldest Indian restaurant,” as it bills itself, is looking for other locations and plans to move by August, said Jasleen Judge, whose parents, Aman and Nabi Judge, own the restaurant. It has been in the current location on Highland Avenue for more than 26 years.

“We plan to stay open,” Judge said. “We are looking to stay within a five-mile radius. We are looking for a place.”

Highland Package Store, in the Highland Plaza next to Taj India, will also be forced to move or close.

The store has been notified it has to move by July 31, said manager David Gorji.

Taj India remains open uninterrupted so far, including its daily lunch buffet, but customers have been asking about their plans considering the scheduled demolition of the building. The liquor store next door also remains open for now.

Demolition of Highland Plaza including the former Western Supermarket on Highland Avenue is expected to begin this summer. The Western Supermarket closed four years ago. That part of the building remains vacant.

The supermarket for decades was known as the “Weird Western” for attracting an avant-garde, around-the-clock grocery clientele. It will be replaced with an apartment, retail and office complex.

The Birmingham City Council voted last week to approve re-zoning of the site at 2230 Highland Ave. South for mixed-use development.

The complex will feature 272 luxury apartment units, a 373-space parking garage and 10,000 square feet of retail and office space, to be developed by 22nd Street Partners on 2230 Highland Ave. South, 2174 11th Court South and 1128 22nd St. South. The building on 2.59 acres will be 68 feet tall and include an outdoor pool and courtyard.

City officials say the retail space that will be on the ground floor of the new complex will have room for businesses such as restaurants once it is completed.

Western Supermarkets discontinued operations in 2019. The Western Supermarket on Highland Avenue was famous for being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making it a go-to for midnight grocery shoppers and those leaving bars or hospital graveyard shifts who needed to pick up essentials in the middle of the night.

The Western on Highland was destroyed by fire in 1974, but was rebuilt, expanded and reopened in 1975.

See also: Sweet Tea Restaurant in Birmingham closed for good

Remember the ‘Weird Western?’ Ex-supermarket on Highland Avenue approved for apartments