If you are in Haridwar-Roorkee belt and you have a desire to eat kadhi-rice and you express this desire to a rickshaw driver, he will take you straight to a modest restaurant of 10 by 10 sq. ft., whose sign board is there. The name of this dish is written Yes, the name of the restaurant is 'Kadhi Chawal (famous of Saharanpur people).' The specialty of this restaurant, located on BT Ganj Road near Roorkee canal, is that after the food is over, its owner pulls down the shutter till 3.30 pm. Those who have seen restaurants open till midnight may find this strange.
This restaurant is run by two brothers Mukul and his younger brother Paras Kashyap. They wake up every morning at 4 am. After washing their mouth and hands, they remove the lid of the large utensils in which the curd was stored at night, only after being satisfied with the quality of the curd, they go for routine work. This curd is made from 50 liters of milk. After morning tea, the whole family takes a bath and performs puja. After that they start making the link. It usually takes three hours to make two quintals of kadhi. By 9 in the morning all the brothers take the kadhi to the shop. After this it becomes difficult to even talk to Mukul and Paras, because the crowd of customers swells. There are no chairs to sit in the restaurant, customers eat curry and rice while standing. This business was started by his father in 1990 on a handcart, he used to roam from one place to another throughout the day in that small town. Then they fixed a place where there used to be good sales. At last he reached the place where his shop is today and stood on the road selling curry and rice till he started earning enough to rent a place on BT Ganj road. In 2008, he rented a small shop, then later bought it. There was no seating arrangement, but facilities were available to pack and deliver food, the quality of the food gained them popularity and the business grew. Both the brothers had mastered the art of making curries with the help of spices ground at home from their father. After the death of his father in 2019, he rented another shop, so that he could serve food to more customers, but there too, he could eat while standing. He also started making Chole-Bhatura and Aloo Kachori, but the customers did not accept it. The brothers felt that this would hurt their brand image of making the best kadhi, so they started focusing on that.
Opening a restaurant is one of the secret desires of many Millennials, but opening a restaurant has always been a complicated subject, as it is not always easy to choose what we will serve to our customers. But these complications can be reduced and the risk can also be reduced if we open an offbeat food business like those two brothers did. Interestingly, there is another such food and drink shop in Roorkee, which closes after 2 pm. We can eat Moradabadi Dal at that particular shop.
The idea is that if you have magic in your hands and can create something special, use it to sustain your business and make it stand out from others. Success will follow you.
