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

At Dal Fryday there is always something to cheer. We understand this more than many others… with the world cup knock out of the Indian team bringing a pale of gloom everywhere we all need something to cheer.

Starting today ( 24 March) we have a few exciting offers at Dal Fryday…

Offer 1 -

• Order a Shaukeen ke Liye (Veg Platter) and avail 10% off on your entire bill.

• Order a Shaukeen ke Liye (Non Veg Platter) and avail 10 % off on your entire bill.

Offer 2 – Download and Print this discount coupon produce it at Dal Fryday and avail 20% off on your Lunch* bill ( valid for lunch only between Monday and Thursday).
Tip: Download / save image and print. For larger image of coupon click here

Please consider the environment before printing this message…print it on the back of a used sheet of paper…well…just innovate:)

Offer 3 – Order one dessert with your meal and get one absolutely Free*.

OK, should the Indian team miraculously qualify for the next round with Bermuda beating Bangladesh…we would only be happy to extend the offer till April 28th. Now cheer up and get out of your homes or give the remote to the ladies.

*( offer 1 and offer 2 cannot be combined) (offers 2 and 3 are valid only for dine ins)

**The above offers are valid till 28th April.

***However we shall hold the right to extend or discontinue all or part of these offers anytime before April 28th as deemed fit

Seth Godin has a new post on Email Spamming. Was reading the post ( ironic) when my mobile rings…I look at the phone and its an unknown number. I usually pick up the phone with unknown numbers coz its on this phone that many customers call to place orders for home delivery. I say hello and the squeaky male voice on the other end starts to talk about “a” bank he represents and goes on to detail on some stupid product he has on offer.

6 seconds into the conversation I disconnect the call and add the number to my phonebook. Yes, I add these numbers to my phone book and list them under ‘RUBBISH’. I probably must have been under some stress when I named it Rubbish… I should have titled it something else…in hindsight I guess its fair calling it so. There are close to 23 numbers on that list… Is that a high number…??or is anyone counting???

So…again a few hours later it starts all over again…Am at work …things are a little heated up here and bang I get an sms… I get irritated sometimes when I am disturbed in the middle of something…I pick up my mobile with its light flashing and on the screen is a message from ‘rubbish’…Dang…I start deleting the message without opening it and there comes another…wtf…bang… another… and another and you wont believe this…I get one more…!!! Five friggin spam sms in less than 10 seconds…That guy who sent it must sure be talented…

I stand up…my bowels in an uproar now…excuse myself from whom I was with walk to my office…pick up the land line and dial the number from which I got the stinking sms’.

The call is answered by a lady who announces it as a bank… I wait for her to do her bit and ask her… is this 411*****. She says ‘yes’…and I give her a piece of my mind… she goes ‘hey listen’…I tell her ‘No!! you listen…you call up whoever it is you have to call…that number belongs to you and tell them to STOP sending sms’ to me or calling me… I have no interest in what you have to sell me… STOP SPAMMING… or this wont be the last you hear from me….’

Its been three hours now… my phone’s silent… but clearly I am stressed a bit… I wish the game later today improves my mood…

Remember having read a post on Airtel being sued for such telemarketer calls. Watch this space I am going to have some fun…

Being a ‘new’ blogger can be a nervous experience…When I had started blogging a couple of years ago..I started of as someone who know very little about the task… I learnt the ropes on my own as there was very little help available or I didn’t know where to look.

Thanks now to the blogging community, every blogger worth his/her salt has a section on their blog dedicated to helping the newbies…with the task of putting up a good blog. Liz Strauss of successful blog has a detailed post for beginners here. Liz also lists one of my other blogs Funny Emails as a successful and outstanding blog. Thanks Liz!:)

Also suggested reading Kathy Sierra’s “Seven Blogging Virtues“.and ProBlogger’s-Blogging for Beginners.

Some new security news on Blogger

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This blog is test posted using Scribe Fire an add on for Firefox earlier known as performancing.

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…and the challenges we would face would be new and varied. Got a hint of this yesterday… It was quite stressful although I have a smile on me as I type this…

Imagine this….

7:30pm… Tuesday…the restaurant is set and ready and the first diners amble in…The captain takes their beverage order and serves it…Bottled water served chilled and two glasses of Mango juice… the drinks are being served and bang…power’ trips’… I look at my watch 7:40 pm… I cuss and get up to flick a match… cant find any… the laptop glows giving enough light…No &***^% matches… I scream…a cook hands me one.

” What’s wrong with the power?” I ask

“Genset karab ho gaya, sir!”

“Kya? Kaun Bola?”

“Woh neeche kaam kar raha hai sir…Bola Garam ho Gaya hai”

Push my chair back and rush down to see whats happening. I find a technician there… “Kya Hua Bhai?”… I mean…” Enna aachu da?” I ask… “Radiator heat ayicchu saar”… Damn I mutter again… “will it be fixed tonight…?” “Theriyaadu saar… complaint given saar…” “Tell them to get the checks done…” I mutter… “everytime there is a problem with your genset, and we would be having more power cuts in summer…” The genset belongs to fabmall and we are borrowing power from them…Of late there have been some problems with their generator…

Thankfully the power comes back… relieved and am walking back to the restaurant…Its a week day, Tuesday… diners are sparse…and we do about 10 tables for dinner on an average…so am not very tensed with the power situation… we could request for a take away if the power situation worsens or maybe even give them a candle light dinner… The power situation normally gets sorted out pretty quickly but in the last couple of weeks we have had a few long stints without power….giving us some anxious moments…

So, now with the power back I am climbing up the rear stair access and i hear a whoooooooooooooooooosh of a sound… wtf… I mutter and then it strikes me a nauseating and putrefying stench… The gas Bank… And I shout for the kitchen staff to get the keys to the gas bank… “The keys… The keys to the gas bank….” The gas is leaking I holler… Someone throws the keys… The stench is horrible… I am gasping as I struggle to get the key into the lock… finally managing to open it…. the whooooooooooooooooooosh is stronger the stench unbearable… I reach inside and shut the valve…. and then move back to the wall to catch my breath.

Random thots keep flashing in my mind…The guys had just serviced the gas bank and the range and given a clean chit…I fumble in my pockets to get my phone… hands shaking… My staff anxious are besides me now… “How many tables?” I ask… ” Four, sir”…”Ok, get inside tell the guests we have a problem…and also tell them it would take some time to fix…and there would be some delay in their food being served… you know the drill…” “Ok, Sir, he says and goes in”… “Ek delivery be hai Sir”… I hear the ordertaker…. whats the order.. I ask….”Mostly from the tandoor… also one gravy sir!” “Ok…. call the guest and tell them we have an issue and request them if we can send a tikka instead…” Moments later he comes back with a smile… I understand.

In the meanwhile I spoke to the service guy and he promises to be here as quick as possible…”mein auto lekhe aaonga sir… ” “Kaise bhi bhai Jaldi aa jaana”

The guests were polite and understood what we were going through… It was very kind of them to have waited for their meal… I was apologising to them when I saw a goup of ten walk in… The captain greets them and informs them of the situation… they look at the occupied tables… discusses among themselves and leaves… promising to return.

Damn I cuss again…

The service man arrives on time and fixes the gas pipeline by connecting the pipe directly after removing the valve… “Kya hua…?” “Valve phat gaya saab”… he says… “summer hai na”

The kitchen is back in action the orders are made and served quickly…guests have their meals… apologies are tendered and accepted…

Our Gas bank is located behind the restaurant on the ground floor and sits in GI sheet shed and is exposed to the outside… In winters the weather cools the gas inside the cylnders and reduces the pressure in the pipe – when we carry buckts of piping hot water to ‘Bathe’ the cylinders just to get them flowing again and in summers the heat generated enough pressure inside to puncture the valve in the pipe line

So much for summer pressure…

Havent been blogging about the happening at Dal Fryday for some time since January…Mostly because at many times I wasnt sure of what to blog. Work has been quite hectic…sometimes stretching to 16 – 17 hour days… and so much fun doing it.

We have been having focussing on streamlining a lot of the internal operations of the workings at the restaurant. It has been quite fulfilling though, these past three months. Sales has been healthly with the graph looking up and bringing cheer…costs starting to get under control…Guests feedbacks being generally very positive and lots of repeat guests.

We have been having the usual problems too…some of which dont hold me by the neck and shake me anymore…have got used to the set backs and have been focussing on them and trying to sort them out. I just call these ‘occupational hazards’.

Staffing…One major issue has always been retaining key staff…and or finding replacements for staff that leave you after the salary date… We have been fortunate somehow, that we have managed to find replacements in time or earlier and many of the replacements have performed better than their predecessors, something thats slowly given us confidence and belief in the fact that nobody is indispensable.

Purchases. I remember, when we were just starting out we wanted to get our purchaes done on credit, only to find no one really wanted to bet their money on some new ‘guys’ on the block. We did manage to get a vegetable supplier whom we have retained till date… but the provisions was a tough ask…we did manage to get someone to supply provisions at a fixed rate only to find that two months into the business the prevailing market rates for provisions were lower than the rate we what we had signed up for . Now we do most of our purchases regularly from Metro …I say mostly coz Metro does not have the permit in Karnataka to sell pulses, rice etc.

Whats new -

New Snacks Menu We would be serving up our very own snacks menu between 3 and 7 pm daily…starting late March or early April…and also with more juices / beverages on the menu…, and No, we still find aerated beverages unattractive.

Special Offers… New discounts offers for lunch on weekdays shall be introduced shortly. We are also working at online discount coupons to be freely downloaded and used at Dal Fryday ( watch this space for more info). We would also be distributing Gift vouchers. These are planned only for dine ins and not for home deliveries.

Sodexho Coupons – We are working on accepting Sodexho coupons at the restaurant. This feature would be introduced very shortly.

I may blog infrequently about the restuarant in the future too… although there is so much more that I could write now…:)