In a roughly 2-square-mile patch containing some of India's priciest real estate, a firm and sometimes militant vegetarianism prevails. Most residents of this old-money section of South Mumbai are Jains or devout Hindus, and not only do they not eat flesh, but they also don't want it anywhere near them.

Eateries serving meat and seafood are all but banned, and stories abound of certain apartment buildings refusing to consider prospective residents who are what Indians call sometimes with more than a soupcon of judgment non-vegetarians.

"They're pretty fascist about it," says food writer Roshni Bajaj Sanghvi. "I've seen Bengali friends and others complain that they've tried to move somewhere and the building says, 'Oh, you are fish-eaters, you'll smell up the place, so we won't give you the apartment.'"

A menu by prominent restaurateur Sanjay Narang that included tandoori chicken and lamb curry ticked off neighbors in an apartment building on an exclusive boulevard fronting the Arabian Sea. Narang shuttered his ground-floor establishment in 2005 after residents above reportedly spat on his patrons, dropped nails on them or keyed their cars.

So what's a global food and beverage behemoth to do in such circumstances?

If you're Starbucks which seems intent on cracking every lucrative Indian market you go with the flow.

The coffee chain's new outpost off palm-fringed Marine Drive doesn't sell the local-style club sandwiches or murg kathi wraps flatbreads stuffed with spiced chicken found at dozens of other Starbucks in India. The brightly lighted display case contains only meatless fare: a hummus and pita platter, a spicy red bean sandwich, a mushroom and sun-dried tomato filling on ciabatta.

There are no potatoes, onions or omelets in sight, either, in deference to Jains, who eschew not only meat but also eggs and root vegetables plucked from beneath the earth. Muffins, cakes and pastries made with egg are clearly labeled, in keeping with Indian law.

"It's a Jain area," explained Sanjay, a young barista. "Their preference."

Starbucks' Indian office did not respond to questions. But the menu is clearly in line with snack shops and ice cream stalls in the neighborhood that bill themselves as "100% pure veg," including doughnuts that come in eggless varieties.

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Mumbai's strictly vegetarian enclave gives flesh-eaters the evil eye