Tag: Covid-19 And Restaurants

Street Food

‘Street Food Lovers Are Back With A Vengeance’

By LokMarg

Himanshu Garg, 40, an IT engineer-turned-food entrepreneur, was pleasantly surprised when his patrons returned in droves after the Covid-19 lockdown ended in Bengaluru

No foodie worth his salt (pun intended) would ever let go of India’s favourite street food – chaat. When I moved from Indore to Bengaluru in 2001 to take up my job as an IT Engineer with Nokia, I severely missed that. There weren’t many places that served chaat or other popular street food with the distinct kick that we are used to in places like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Indore etc.

The foodie in me decided to do something about it. In 2012, I took the plunge and opened my first take-away restaurant serving popular fast food items from all parts of the country, with chaat leading from the front. We named it Puchkas, which is what golgappas /pani puris are called in West Bengal. The restaurant clicked well and slowly, we had four take-away outlets running in the city.

We had made all preparations for launching our fifth restaurant in Hyderabad on the Ugadi festival day when the lockdown was announced in March. For two months, nothing except our motivation and courage levels moved. We had paid rent in advance for four months for the Hyderabad outlet and had even sent some staff there. We had no idea for how long the situation would remain that way.

ALSO READ: ‘Reopening Our Restaurant Needed Courage’

When Unlock 1.0 was announced, there was uncertainty if our customers would step out to savour fast food. I had read on social media that people had turned into great chefs during the lockdown. I was wondering would they still be tempted to try food from outside? Mercifully, they did. And in good numbers. Not only did they order puchkas, they lined up for pav bhajis, chole bhatures, dabelis, jalebis, samosas, kachoris and what have you. I think they were waiting to savour the street food and came out at the first opportunity they got. Such is the lure of street food in our country.

We also joined hands again with Zomato and Swiggy for home delivery. Encouraged, I turned to the Hyderabad outlet which was finally opened last week. While I am looking after our Bengaluru operations, my brother Sudhanshu (38), who is also an IT engineer, is managing the Hyderabad outlet. Sudhanshu was working in the US and left his job to join me in the enterprise last year.

ALSO READ: ‘How I Turned The (Dining) Tables On Lockdown’

We maintain extensive hygiene at our outlets. The staff wears masks, gloves and hair masks at all times. Their temperature as well as that of delivery persons from Zomato and Swiggy is checked every day. Everyone goes for hand-wash at regular intervals. We encourage all our customers to maintain social distancing. The restaurants were anyway cleaned thoroughly everyday even before the pandemic, but now we take extra care to sanitize all the surfaces at regular intervals. We are open from 7:30 am to 12 noon. Then everyone takes a break and we are back in business from 4 pm to 10 pm.

We regularly brainstorm about how to make things much safer and hygienic during the pandemic. There is still uncertainty and many businesses are closing down but we are thriving. All I can say is that self-discipline and self-motivation are the mantras for staying afloat.

Fly Kouzina

‘Reopening Our Restaurant Needed Courage & Caution’

By LokMarg

Saurabh Jalan (36), a restaurateur in Kolkata, used the lockdown period to set new safety and hygiene standards in place. When Unlock 1.0 came, Jalan was ready to reboot

I own three restaurants in Kolkata and have been in this business for last five years. The business was running smoothly till Coronavirus pandemic struck. People in Kolkata love adda (loosely, a hangout buzzing with debates and discussion), and long social meetings are an inherent part of the city’s culture. Coronavirus and the ensuing lockdown brought an abrupt end to this.

The hospitality sector has been the worst hit and we didn’t know what the future would hold for all of us. The first lockdown had been announced so suddenly that many of our employees were not able to go back to their home towns in other states, especially our housekeeping staff and chefs etc. on duty that night. The first thing we did was to tell them not to panic and keep their morale high. We provided them shelter in the restaurant itself and took care of their needs to make them feel they were not alone in this crisis.

Realising that the pandemic will change the way we would socialise in future, we trained our staff to set new hygiene and sanitation standards in place.

ALSO READ: ‘How I Turned (Dining) Tables On Lockdown’

I then sat with my partners to draw a plan to provide food to the needy. It had twin purpose: we served our society and also kept our employees engaged in work. Every day, we sent out around 1,000-1,500 food packets. We thus we got better equipped against Covid-19. When the Unlock 1.0 was announced, we were cautious but ready to be back in business.

Our patrons’ safety was paramount. So we kept only one of the three restaurants fully functional while other two were turned into take-away or home delivery setups. The dining in facility was kept limited to our veg multi-cuisine restaurant called Fly Kouzina (Kolkata’s first airline-themed restaurant in Salt Lake area).

I would be lying if I said we are not scared. But we have a solid team which brainstorms every morning about how to make things safer, more hygienic and yet enjoyable for both customers and employees.

Saurabh Jalan (middle) at his restaurant

There are paper envelopes for guests to keep their masks while they are eating. We share the menu via WhatsApp so there is minimum need to touch anything except the food we eat. If customers want to order food from their cars parked outside, we make sure we provide them with as good a service as we do inside the restaurant.

ALSO READ: ‘Some Work From Home, I Workout From Home’

The surfaces are regularly sanitized. Excessive care is taken in keeping the washrooms sanitized after every single use. We also take out the time to address each and every query the guests might have related to our preparation against Covid-19.

Based on our experience on Fly Kouzina, we hope to open our other two restaurants pretty soon. Both the public as well as restaurant owners are showing courage with caution. Each day brings with itself new challenges and newer solutions to keep the fight against Covid-19 going.

We have only about 30-40 people coming in to our restaurant every day but we hope things will begin to pick up slowly. Flying is still very risky but people can get a little feel of travel at our airline-themed restaurant.