Our Obsession With The C Word.

In the past decade, we all are a witness to big bang explosion in the dine out scenario. Once considered to be a luxury, it has grown out to become much more than that. From the tiny food joints in your lanes to a 7-course meal at the best fine dining restaurant, we cannot choose what to love more. Both of them are equally dear to us. We could do with a quick meal of Idli-Vada when we are getting late at the street hawker who sits at his particular place only in the mornings, catching up with our friends at the friendly B urger-Beer Shack at happy hours, to enjoying our Sushi with some Wasabi with our foreign delegates, eating out has become the next big thing and still growing exponentially.

Once I was on a date with this really cute guy at my favourite breakfast place, eating pancakes and I casually asked him, “what do you see yourself doing in about a decade?”, and to which he replied, “I would want to get a job, earn good enough and then start a cafe of my own”. Honestly, it was not the first time I’d have heard this. Every woman must have heard this at least once in her lifetime and every man out there, would have also given this idea a thought, either all by himself or to start this venture with his friends. Almost every second person on this planet would want to open a cafe and run it successfully and earn moolah out of it.

How come this obsession with opening a cafe amongst the millennial's? Well, according to them, the math is simple: get a place rented, get a menu ready which includes like a million dishes, hire a chef and few other helpers, train them and you’re ready to serve ! Not to forget, in this age of absolute social connectivity, mark their presence in every social media page possible, market your own place, make it look like the next big thing, and post drool-worthy pictures of the food they are to serve. Not to forget, the recent trend of inviting Influencers and pleading them to give good ratings. It kind of feels that instead of the customer, the owner is actually misguided. A lot.

As fancy and easy it seems, practically it is more like carrying a huge boulder on your shoulder and walking on a rope. The rents are crazy heavy. The helping staff/chef does not come for cheap. The food licencing comes with its own price. The setup cost and running cost is exorbitant. The health inspectors are in the radar- one tiny flaw and you will face their wrath. On top of all this, they got to manage the pricing. And god help, if the Influencers are not happy, leading to a drop in the ratings, they are doomed forever. It surely converts into a nightmare that they had not even prepared themselves for. Above all, it's all a test of patience. You run out of it, you are running away leaving behind wasted time and money.

What is not understood is that the customer would not care if your walls are painted or if the crockery is pretty or whether the floor is clean or not. In the end, all the customer is going to be concerned about and remember, is the taste of the food you serve. The quality and quantity of the food you serve to them. If it is filling their stomach and soul. Food is meant to be made with all of your heart and mixed with the joy of sharing the meal with thousands of others. People will come looking for you from all over the world, only if you are ready to serve them what they have come for - food made with love and shared with care.

We would not mind waiting in a queue for about an hour to get our hands on some hot piping Pyaaz Kachoris or sitting in the lounge for a long time, only to sample a restaurant’s delicious Mezze Platter. It does not matter if you start a delivery based stall serving wraps or an ultra expensive authentic Chinese restaurant or even yet-another-cafe-in-the-block, but it is to be kept in mind that there is nothing more important than good food.

The next time you ever think of opening a cafe, you need to know the basics of running a cafe. Only if you have the heart to cook and serve food that could satisfy a soul and attain happiness and share the same joy with somebody who would really appreciate your food, then nothing in this world can stop you from even impressing Gordon Ramsey !