Suparna Goswami Bhattacharya & Supriya Ghorpade l Bangalore
It is 10.30 on a sunny morning in June. A middle-aged couple seated pretty in their BMW are hunting for a parking spot. They are out for some scrumptious mutton stew and appam—something they have been having almost every weekend at this British-style cosy cafe, Koshy’s, for two decades.
For those well acquainted with Bangalore, this is a familiar scene outside the eatery.
“The other day I met a regular customer, who usually comes in his limousine, on a bike. I asked him what happened to his car, to which he replied that he had to come on his ‘jet plane’ (two-wheeler) to get parking at Koshy’s,” jokes Santosh Koshy, who runs Koshy’s Restaurant along with brother Prem Koshy.
The anecdote signifies the place Koshy’s holds in the hearts of many Bangaloreans. What started off as a bakery outlet in the 1940s has today become an iconic eatery.
Looking back, unemployment was the beginning of good things to come for the founder, PO Koshy. Having lost his job as a senior executive with a private bank when it shut its doors, Koshy carved out a lucrative career in the food industry by starting one of India’s first bakeries.
It later went on to become a department store on MG Road, which now houses the showrooms of Kelvinator and Samsung. In 1952-53, with the backing of the warden of Bishop Cotton School, Rev Cannon Elphick, Koshy leased a plot of land from St Marks Cathedral and built the premises where Koshy’s now stands on St Marks Road. The eating house was initially called Parade Cafe.
Fast forward to the third-generation restaurateurs, and in keeping with the times, Koshy’s has revamped its ‘Jewel Cafe’ while still maintaining its old-world charm. “My father was very apprehensive of expanding the cafe by eating into the department store space. I had to fight to get my way,” says Santosh.
The menu has more than 800 items on its list with old favourites such as fish and chips, mutton stew and a traditional English breakfast of sausages, eggs and bacon still finding a prominent place.
“During peak hours, the restaurant is nothing short of a fish market,” he says. “Sometimes customers, while talking among themselves, are not in control of their emotions. They are so regular at Koshy’s that they have started treating the place as their home. Our non-air conditioned section is very popular. We have old-timers who come and sit for hours reading a book over Koshy’s coffee, but there is another section of customers who would want a more sophisticated, quiet environment to have a date or business meetings over lunch.”
This is the customer base Jewel Cafe caters to today. “Yes, dining in this section would mean your bill is slightly on the higher side, but we cannot help that—the overheads are larger,” he says.
Santosh insists the company has never increased its profits beyond 20%. “My grandfather always insisted that we should not treat Koshy’s as our business, but as a means to service people. I also come from that school of thought. People may term this as conservative but if we have survived this far, we will surely survive in the coming years as well,” he says.
This partly explains why Koshy’s bakery arm has not been able to sustain competition from the likes of Daily Breads and Spencer’s.
“Daily Breads has done well to sustain itself. Unfortunately, we could not do it,” Santosh says.
It has not been all praises for the brand. The family has had to fight off the way people sometimes perceive Koshy’s. “We often hear that despite us starting way ahead of other brands, today we are lagging behind in the race,” he says.
Expansion, however, is on the cards for the group with another fine-dining restaurant opening in Koramangala soon.
“Our customer base is spread all across the city. With the traffic and parking constraints these days, they find it hard to come all the way into town for a meal at Koshy’s,” Santosh says. “We’d be able to cater to more customers by expanding our footprint in other parts of the city.”
As it usually happens in family businesses, the third generation faced differences of opinion in the way business had to be run. “Those were crazy days. For instance, I wanted to change the way payments were made to suppliers. Instead of locking their payments for days, I felt it was best to clear the accounts on a daily basis,” Santosh says.
Even the equation with employees became more open. “I discouraged them from wishing me or saluting me every time they saw me. I told them to do their work sincerely so that they could go home on time. These workers have their own problems, right from alcohol addiction to womanising, but that is strictly after their work time. The time they are here, they are under my custody, and we take personal care and interest in them,” he says.
Bangalore has seen a lot of changes, some may like it, some may not. However, there are things that never grow old, despite their retro style. The city has hundreds of such things that give it character and life. Koshy’s, many will agree, is one such place. Just like namma Bengaluru, it welcomes both old and new.
source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA – Daily News & Analysis / Home> Bangalore> Report / by Suparna Goswami Bhattacharya & Supriya Ghorpade l Place: Bangalore / Agency: DNA / Monday, June 25th, 2012.
