D A L F R Y D A Y, Bangalore, Coffee and Everything else

  For all friends and family who intend to send me greetings / luv this year as they did in 2005, let me tell you last year it didn’t do F#@%a#l. I would appreciate this year if you would send CASH.

I have been contemplating for a while now to put up a list of kewl sites and blogs that i think needs more people to look at. not that the sites deserve any publicity. But then most people who read my blogs wouldn’t be surfing to see them anyway…Oh just kidding…well, if you have any sites that I should look at do post a comment …Ciao then.

My Christmas Gift
Some cool freewares for downloads…I have been visiting them for ages now…Highly recommended.

Christmas lights
Take a look at what this dude has done to his home with Christmas Lighting…Its a >4mb download…but it sure flipped me

Pope John Paul
Even the new pope has a blog.

50 Greatest gadgets in the last 50 years
PC worlds listings of the 50 greatest Inventions in the last 5 decades. Take a look and see how many you own. Well if you are in India most of them aren’t available here and you know why…

White House Tapes – The Kennedy Assassination
A secret audio tape recording that I came across on the web on the JFK assassination…check it out if you are a conspiracy buff

Curry n Rice Video
Take a look at this funny video…I promise a few laughs…I thought it was a tad too long…funny nevertheless.

George Bush – A Poem
The Poem on Dubya in the Pakistani alimentary School text books. The First alphabet in the poem and Dubya’s pic however isn’t highlighted in the text books.

Lowest fare Airline Tickets – International
A blog that gives you details on how to get the lowest fares on airline tickets in the Americas. Gives some useful insight. I do not guarantee any authenticity, but worth taking a look.

Pirate Translator
If you liked Johnny Depp (One of my favorites) in Pirates of the Caribbean and you would like to talk like capt. Jack Sparrow. Then this would be a cool site…I guess.

Visual Depiction of our world
A good illustration of the world around us.

Dante’s Inferno test
Want to know where you are going in your after life?. Take this quiz.

Forgot a Birthday?
Don’t worry if you forgot a birthday. Heres a website that will list out names from a database (they claim) of 120 million people. While you are at it you may also want to check out the names database

Learn Poker
“Learn poker through the bad experiences of others because you won’t live long enough to make all of the mistakes yourself.”

I thought it would be a good idea to start thinking on a name for the restaurant…it would make things a lot easier…we have come up with a few names that sound real cool and is in sync with our idea of the restaurant

“Saffron Haveli” , ” Cinnamon Courtyard” “Tamarind Temple” ,”Ginger Kitchen”,
“Ajmeri Gate”, “Dilli Chutney”, “Tandoori – Dil Se” ,
“Spice Surprise, ” Magic Garlic”
Except for Magic Garlic (I really like the name ) which has already been taken all other names sound very original…Do you have any names for us…do write in…I know of a few people who are already working on it…including ‘Pravina’

Heres what you should remember while sending us names

• send us a name for a fine dining Indian restaurant in Bangalore, India serving North Indian Cuisine
• Try being original ( its so easy these days…just google it…lol…yeah i am amazed myself on what google does…really!)
• The name should preferably have a combination of two words which rhyme or has a good ring to it. One Indian and the other “English”
• Avoid using slang and words that do not relate to food.
• If we choose your name…I promise a free meal for two any day at your convenience at the restaurant…:)

I am leaving for kochi…later tonite…i wouldn’t be blogging for a couple o nights or mebbe even more…

Do you know any blogs on Indian restaurants in India???

I have been wanting to read blogs by Indian restaurant owners and others related to the restaurant business…If you are reading this and you know of any such a blog please post the link as a comment or email me, I would be very grateful.

Did a tour of Sadashiv Nager and New BEL road sites with John yesterday…It was a bit disappointing…Sadashiv Nagar location is gone… Someone had hired it already. I saw pooja materials on the second floor. Man sites just disappear faster than they in Bangalore these dates…BE QUICK OR BE DEAD!!! “Yeah only sites where the business’ have failed stay available for longer” John said

John liked the Sadashiv Nagar location… He said that the area is not 750 sqft as mentioned to me…I felt the same too yesterday…probably the morning light had made the site appear large the last time I saw it. Yeah and I was in a hurry too that day. However he was really impressed by the location. His wives family stays very near Bashim circle.

We then visited “Neel” and then went to the New BEL road site. “Yeah this would be 2200 sq ft. So how long would it take for the site to be ready?” he asked ” mebbe another three months.” I said ” or even sooner if we approach the builder. Pizza Hut ( which is about 300 mts from the site) came up in just a month…” I added. “Pizza Hut..they have the money…”he let that hang.

He didnt say much about the restaurant…It was around 4 pm and they were closing down after lunch…We saw a the last people leave the restaurant while we entered the restaurant. Neel serves only buffet lunch… and It looked pretty impressive…even when it was empty…. I was told when we had dined there that the restaurant was owned by some people in the movie business. Since I was new then the name didn’t stick….Some Art director if I remember correctly…neways

There is a restaurant very similar to this on the ring road…I heard John say…This would be about 5000 sq ft. The guy would have had the land for sometime and decided on the restaurant. I said the food was bad here…but the ambience more or less makes up for it. Neel had close to 100 foot falls every night i guessed and that would go far higher on weekends…

I remember the visit to Pizza Hut on Sunday evening…Its been about a couple of weeks since they opened this outlet on New BEL road. I spoke to a steward there he said we do aound Rs 40000 per day on week days and Rs 80000/- on weekends….Roughly put thats 1600000 a month… phenomenal stuff. I had jumped when i heard that…but then they are a brand…established and spend a lot of money on advertising….would like to see their numbers after about 4 months….Tittu had said…I personally had felt a little queasy in my belly after that veggie cheese shock. Pizza hut was rocking though it was packed when we were there.

Coming back to “Neel” That does a good turnover too. But how much of it is related to the sale of liquor i wonder….”It costs about 15 lakhs to get a liquor licence” John said…”and its very difficult to get one…But I have a friend maybe we can use him..I dont know if he would be willing to help….”well…I guess thats just another way of saying buddy it would cost a helluva lot more than 15 if u wanted a liquor licence…if you are thinking of one. “Do they give out just beer and wine licence…?” I asked….Maybe will have to check”… i heard him say.

We reached home a while later…Tittu was feeding Antra. She had just got back from school…he had worked from home yesterday as the maid was on leave… Had got Jonh home to introduce him to Tittu (Jacob)

Tittu was a tad disappointed when John said that the New BEL road had some disadvantage as in parking space…We found it difficult to cross to the other side of the road when we had gone “site seeing”.

Tittu wanted to know how we could take it forward with John.Having told John that we were deliberating on weather to have a North Indian cuisine ( tittu) or a continental and chinese cuisine (me) restaurant he was pretty clear – he wanted us to finalise the cuisine the location and what we wanted to do first before he could take it forward. Knowing John…he wanted to do it professionally….he asked us to prepare a business plan and give him a hard copy before he would take it forward….” list down all that you would like to do…deliberate on them and eliminate what you think is not feasible” he said.

He said he had 3 assignments on currently but he would be willing to take it forward if we were interested.

So the business plan it is…I have already started work on it….Tittu would be putting in his thoughts…I hope that is ready asap…

Tittu is off to Mumbai and Delhi for the week…mebbe he would visit Punjabi by nature that classy Punjabi restaurant that he so raves about and wants to replicate….lets see…am waiting for the pix with my fingers crossed.

Gopi called…they have planned a trip to karwar on Jan 2nd… He only named Hemanth…he probably wanted to keep the names of the women a secret. Would have been fun joining them but then this would be my first Christmas and new year with folks since 1993…Wouldn’t want to miss out on it…Appa and Amma would be visiting Bangalore later this week and staying on till 2nd…and tittu would be having the housewarming also then. Have got work to do now…will have to move my stuff to the other bedroom. Appa and Amma would be using this for their stay. I guess Karwar is Out…mebbe later….another time…

Spoke to Sudhakar yesterday…told him some cock about loosing his number…but briefed him about our plans…he didnt believe it then….i guess hes started to believe now. “Are you serious…?” he asked me…”you would have a lot of spade work to do…wouldn’t you?” Yeah….so much work ahead. Told him to check on the mail i sent him and revert…He wants me to use Sidharth, his son to design our logo and mebbe even give him the work for the interiors….I felt some sadness in his voice….I think i know why frenchi bad mouthed him….yeah but then i will never fully know the reasons…

Put up the Christmas tree last Sunday…I have pix of everyone chipping in, unfortunately theres nothing of the photographer…heres a couple…

Srikanth my senior from School came by today – he works with tittu at Sun Microsystems…Laughed about school and other things for half an hour…he is doing well for himself…I think he got the jitters after the last flooding in Bangalore…he is leaving for Mumbai tonight so he came to park his car here – fearing floods…

Antra my niece at her home in Bangalore. She is 5 Years old.

She loves Cartoons, Icecreams and her favorite songs are Schnappie – the krocodile, and Bob the builder

This pic was taken last week

Notice the antique chair she sits on…Thats her great Grandfathers office chair…it’s pure teak and also has an awesome design 

This is a painting she did today…she’s named it “flowers in a banana lake”

Received this mail today…better safe than sorry…huh?

Extremely Important – NO JOKE

PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE

Now that’s a question that has suddenly creeped into my mind…it has been giving me some anxiety…having changed focus of setting shop on New BEL road, had to do a recce of the local market and decided to visit Chung’s opp. Ramaiah Med. College and do a bit of a survey.

Visited Chung’s on Wednesday evening and was hoping to meet the owner. It was around 7:30pm, took the car, which was eventually a bad idea…neways….The guy at the cash desk was a mallu named Rakesh…I got his name as Rajesh…did some pleasant verbal volley with him…. I was surprised to find the cashier in the middle of things…Obviously the guy who ran the place did not have any formal training in the biz…

We’ve had food earlier at Chung’s and it was nothing to take home about. Put in one word it was “crap”.

Neways did chat up with Rakesh who came across as a friendly guy…The restaurant is about one year and three months old…Its been maintained fairly well… although I found paint peel and furniture marks in some places…My first meeting was a bonding thing I did…didn’t ask too many questions…just made him comfortable talking to him in mallu tongue. Sure made him comfortable…he agreed that he gets around 100 people every day…that was a fair sound bite from him and I started my number crunching…

Asked him for his takeaway menu card…Strangely it did not have any pricing on it. (I wondered if he was serious about home deliveries) would find out soon.

I got the restaurant menu card and made a note of their pricing. It was steep. Madan used to bring these noodles when he returned from Darjeeling…I had known the taste of that noodle…these guys calling it Chinese made no sense…Mebbe the Chinese did eat their noodles that way…but you cant be serving boiled egg noodles with some kind of taste maker and calling them a fancy vegetable szechuan chowmein. It had sounded appropriate on the menu…but ughhhhh…it had tasted yuck.

Well, my visit was never to review whether the food tasted any better. That chapter was closed long back…and am pretty sure it could never get better than that…will tell you why later…

I did visit Chungs again yesterday, calling Rakesh and fixing an appointment with him hoping to see Ajay who owned that place. I had an appointment at 2:30. I reached there on time…I decided to pedal it up…made a mental note to pedal push more often.

Chungs was fairly full…I mean it looked occupied…there were 10 people sitting on different tables…was not expecting too many people there in the afternoon anyways. Had to wait…and wait I did…read Asian age and killed time…tried to ogle at some chicks there…but felt them boring…they were too loud.

I waited…ordered for a coke which he didn’t have…“pepsi only” Rakesh said…I almost said O.K and quickly decided against it when I realized that I didn’t have my wallet…Dang!!!

Ajay came in at around 3:15…said Hi to him to let him know that I wanted to meet him. He had his mouth full with paan or supari…I dunno…well neways. I think he had come to check on the business…stood near the cashier and went through the billing. You really need to trust the cashier guy if u decide to stay away from the business and visit just to check on the collection. I did not see the cashier maintain a KOT or BOT…I saw him write on a slip of paper – 1 soft drink when the waiter ordered one…well in that case there was no control I thought…not my problem…I said to myself.

Ajay came to my table at 3:30. He had washed his mouth…which I appreciated…imagine otherwise. He came across as a decent chap… he had his fingers on the pulse of the restaurant…but I thought he could do more.

Introduced myself…told him…that I was planning to start a restaurant in Sanjay Nagar, on new BEL road or elsewhere…I didn’t want him going defensive straight away…He told me there were about 3 chinese restaurants in the area and that “Neel” also served Chinese…Neel…yeah more about that later…

He was more forthcoming than I expected him to be…and these were what he told me

• I do about 4.5 lakhs every month {(i.e) Rs15000/- every day…not enough at all for us I thought}
• On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays he does 20000/- per day ( even worse news coz then you average daily sale drops to less than 15000/- per day)
• He had expected good business from the Ramiah college students…before he took up the venture…but then it did not work that way.
• All the doctors from the hospital does not give him more than Rs4000 per week. The students spend more he emphasized.
• They spend more money at the coffee day than at his restaurant.
• Pizza hut just opened…they seem to be looking at 17 lacs per month in gross sales…which was highly unlikely he felt. I told him that it was a possible number with their pricing and their focus on home delivery.
• I said the only reason for them to put a swanky outlet next to his was becoz there was potential in the area.
• He gave me his reasons for not focusing on home deliveries. – he said most people order Chinese at home when they are drinking ( I dunno) so they order their food and eat it later and chinese food needs to be eaten hot ( I agree) or else it would taste lousy…( and if it is Darjeeling noodles…the trouble is double)
• Pizza guys promise delivery in 30 mins…so people expect him to deliver chinese also within 30 mins…very unfair, I agreed…people did not realize that Chinese is not precooked microwaved food and it takes time…for preparation…hey, if ur reading this blog and u did not know it takes 20 – 30 mins for preparation alone delivery time excluded…and you cannot deliver it hot..i mean u can but the costs mebbe high.
• No he has not raised his pricing since inception coz he feeds mostly a budget concious crowd wudnt be happy with increased pricing on (an already fancy) current price list.
• Prices have gone up, Gas was Rs 450??? last year is now Rs 720 this year.
• Vegetables are delivered on daily rates.
• Not gone into a contract with supplier coz not all that he wants is delivered by the same supplier. So, daily market price…he says he gets a good deal…(debatable).
• Costs…salaries Rs 40000. Electricity and water Rs 28000 in summer and Rs 25000/- now. His a/c’s weren’t running while I was there.
• Restaurant size 3000 sq ft pays Rs30000 as monthly rent. Coffee day pays Rs 38000/- rent for ground floor including the small open frontage. Pizza hut he tells me pays Rs 30 per sq ft. ( they always end up hiking market value…I thot)
• Duty meals cooked for the staff in the main kitchen.
• Uniform laundered by staff themselves.
• Regular staff paid decent salaries…junior staff does not stay long…they are paid Rs 1500 or less.
• Pays COT? and not VAT. He pays 4% of his total turnover and not 12.5% as VAT and bother about apply for returns. I also agree…coz most suppliers are not registered… and VAT insists on buying for registered suppliers only or else damages/ penalty is levied. He said “I have no problem…who will wait for applying for returns etc”
• “I Pay my taxes regularly” ( good idea) “or after 2-3 years the tax guys will come…in which case u will still have to pay taxes with penalty and give them guys 15-20k extra”.
• Pays PF he says through his CA… (I doubt)…mebbe he pays for a few and shows lesser number of staff and shows remaining as casuals.
• Has 22 staff working in the restaurant.…I thought…isn’t that high…jeez. 80 covers…2 sessions…break shift…why 22 staff???
• Most staff are from Calcutta, Darjeeling, Nepal…Obviously…
• Timings…Breakshit…12 noon to 3pm (I saw him refuse an order at 3.30pm) 7:30 to 10.30pm.
• He has one guy for soup one guy for main course…one guy for noodles…etc…Man, think in terms of money…I wanted to tell him.
• Who indents for raw materials for the kitchen…I asked…He has three guys to do it for him…I doubt if he will be able to maintain a 30% food cost.
• What about garbage…? Corporation cleans up owner takes care of that – pays 6000 once in 6 months to the owner…I dunno if I heard that correct…6000 or Rs1000 every 6 months.
• What was the average spend I asked…? He laughed for the first time and said…I have had 9 girls come to my restaurant once and their bill was Rs 252/-…my mouth opened too…Students don’t spend more than 100 bucks per meal otherwise. They order for one portion and share it…Yeah probably your portioning is large I thought.
• He was also pissed off at coffee day…“letting people hang out there…but not doing ‘real business’. That’s why I don’t have a TV in here” he said. “They’d just come and sit here and order for 100 bucks and stay for 2 hours if there is a match. Affects my serious diners”. he said.
• The maximum I have made from a table is Rs 4000/- which again was from a group.
• This outlet is not a franchise of Chung Hua on residency road. I am running it on a partnership basis…20% of my profits go to them.
• So who measures quality…I asked? They send their people to check on quality he said but if you are a franchisee you will have to find your staff and practically run the business yourself.
• The disadvantages of this location…Purely residential – a big disadvantage…take mainland china…u will not spend less than 500 bucks there for small portions…he is the highest selling Chinese restaurant in the city…IT guys have money and they don’t have problems shelling money…There is no IT biz here…so only family biz which was mostly at night.
• I realized that when the cashier told him that lunch collection was Rs 5100/-.
• He says it would be a good idea opening near hebbal or near the new airport…lost of new IT’s cos coming there…
• My back ground he says…I am a Bsc grad…I worked for club Mahinrda on their time share sales…there goes…I thought.. I am ful time with this business now.

I assumed he should be making about 60 thou a month…which is again unlikely becoz he has limited controls in place… anyways wished him luck and took leave at around 4:15.

Its true I was thinking…if he did 5 thou in a afternoon and 12 g as daily average sales… (which again is very low) purely through a residential crowd…he could possibly have been looking at higher sales if he was located in a commercial area…although rentals there would be high…his turn over could also have compounded…and it would have been possible to get better rates and increased profits if he took care to control his variable costs.

It doesn’t matter if we have to spend more time deciding…but the location must be absolutely right…!!!