Oak Tree Road
Oak Tree Road is a heavily South Asian shopping and dining district and a road, designated County Route 604, in Middlesex County, New Jersey. Also known as Little India, it is about a thirty-five-minute drive southwest of Manhattan with a concentration of South Asian-focused businesses amid a leafy suburban residential region home to many South Asian families. It is located in Central Jersey in the U.S. county with the highest concentration of Indian Americans.
Oak Tree Road runs for about one-and-a-half miles through Edison and neighboring Iselin, New Jersey. This zone is the largest and most diverse South Asian cultural hub in the United States. According to the 2017 American Community Survey, 42.6% of Iselin residents identified themselves as being Indian American, the highest for any census-designated place in the United States.
Oak Tree Road in Edison and Iselin is home to over 400 South Asian business establishments, including dining, halal grocery, apparel and electronics retailing, and entertainment. Over 60 Indian and Pakistani restaurants alone are found in the neighborhood.
The annual New Jersey India Day Parade, hosted by the Indian Business Association, is held every August on Oak Tree Road to celebrate Indian Independence Day.
The area is served by Metropark Station.
The actor-comedian Omi Vaidya celebrated the Oak Tree Road scene and South Asian culture in his 2020 song "Oak Tree Road," a parody of Old Town Road.
Every year the weeklong festival Ganesh Utsav, honoring the Hindu god Ganesha, draws thousands of celebrants to nearby Woodbridge Mall.
