Success Secrets From Your Favourite Indian Restaurateurs

It happened almost exactly a decade ago but Yash Bhanage still remembers how Sameer Seth and Floyd Cardoz were walking ahead of him, talking animatedly, as he tailed them. Sameer and Yash, former classmates at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, had had many Skype conversations across time zones about starting a restaurant that reimagined Indian food. The hospitality professionals had roped in Floyd, the “first chef born and raised in India to lead an influential New York City kitchen” as The New York Times put it. Sameer had worked under Floyd at a New York restaurant. The trio had met for the first time in Bombay and were headed to see if a site in Bandra would be suitable for the new restaurant they were planning to launch in partnership. 

“They had this camaraderie, I didn’t know Floyd,” says Yash. He was convinced the celebrity chef was wondering why they even needed a third partner. It’s unlikely that the co-founders of award-winning restaurant Bombay Canteen knew they would have one of the most successful partnerships in the Indian restaurant business. And that Floyd, until he passed away during Covid-19 at the age of 59, would play the role of mentor, the one who brought them all together.

After the success of Bombay Canteen, their company, Hunger Inc Hospitality, went on to launch more successful brands such as Goan restaurant O Pedro, all-day sandwich shop Veronica’s and Bombay Sweet Shop, a “Willy Wonka-inspired mithai factory” (as Yash puts it). They also run the bimonthly food magazine enthucutlet.com. 

An early lesson at their flagship restaurant was that their vegetarian menu wasn’t exactly a big hit. “There were lots of vegetarian communities around us and we soon realised we had not paid enough attention to the vegetarian food. It took us a good year or two to figure this out,” says Sameer. “You need the ability to listen and admit you went wrong.” 

They define success differently from most startups. “Valuations have become the measure of success in our country and founders are celebrated for that. But what you did with that money and how you build your company is the true measure of success,” says Yash. Here they share some more thought-provoking success secrets. 

Don’t swim solo. “It’s important to have a co-founder,” says Yash. “To have the maturity and self-awareness to admit that you can’t do this on your own.” Equally important is to learn to work through the differences that will inevitably crop up between partners. Yash remembers the first time he and Sameer fought publicly, days after opening Bombay Canteen. “We started going at each other in the restaurant and Floyd took us outside.” The older man told them that though they would always have arguments, it was important not to air their differences in front of the team. 

Sameer, who describes himself as “conflict averse”, says it took him a while to learn how to have hard conversations: “How do you ensure you put your expectations on the table? How do you create systems and an organisation while being there for each other and talking about what’s important for each other?”

After Floyd’s passing, another friend took on the role of coach-mentor-advisor, helping them ‘zoom out’ at least once a month to see the big picture. Over the years, the duo have learned to communicate honestly; to air their differences promptly rather than mulling over them endlessly; and to not take criticism/feedback personally.

“Losing Floyd and having the whole organisation turned upside down was bad. There’s no sugar coating it. You need time for healing to happen,” says Sameer. When they reopened their restaurant in Covid with a small team of chefs, they had to first admit to themselves that they would never get over losing Floyd. “Doing one task at a time can bring you out of a hole,” adds Yash.

Know your customer. The partners always tell their team—now numbering around 400—to spend time on the floor, and observe customer behaviour. “At Bombay Canteen it happened naturally,” says Yash. “We were there for the first two years, day in and day out, and would take turns carrying the restaurant phone home to make reservations.” 

Sameer believes that consumer behaviour changes frequently and business owners should “have the ability to observe and look at things again—and again.” He advocates that you “have strong opinions, but hold them loosely”.

An open secret about Indian customers is that they are always seeking value for money. “It doesn’t matter which economic strata they come from, everyone wants a deal. Bombay Canteen could charge a lot more elsewhere in the world,” he says. 

Another thing you might have noticed when you eat out: We don’t exactly treat restaurant staff very nicely. “I don’t know what happens when we go to restaurants…there’s a certain entitlement…if I can raise my voice and put the person down,” says Sameer. “Service doesn’t equal servitude.” At this company, staff are taught how to have a conversation as an equal at the table. They are taught to be fearless and know that, if something does go wrong, the management will support them. 

Pay attention to detail. Every little thing counts. At Bombay Canteen, the founders felt that they had got the proportions of tables and the distances between them wrong. So before they launched their next restaurant O Pedro, they visited many restaurants and measured distances by surreptitiously rolling their iPhones.

They learned a packaging lesson at BSS when customers rebuffed their classy Tiffany blue boxes, preferring the glitzier gold boxes, originally meant only for gifting. So they began retailing everything in these more popular boxes.

“Our focus on detail annoys everyone else on the team,” says Yash. “I add a disclaimer that it’s come from years of learning on the job.”

Have a heart. Most importantly, build a business with inclusive values. Sameer and Yash meet a small group of new employees every month. They asked their staff for the best ways in which they would feel comfortable discussing mental health issues, and then put a system in place. They invite hotel school students for a Canteen Class at their flagship restaurant to meet eclectic food industry professionals—so the younger generation understands that the scope of work goes beyond working relentless hours in a hotel chain. The partners worry that at 30%, they don’t have enough female staff and are working on ways to improve the ratio of women to men. Since 2015, they have organised an Independence Day Dawaat every August. The idea of a ‘langar’ open to all, where people pay whatever they want for the meal served on a banana leaf came from someone on their design team. This year they fed 1,018 people and donated around Rs 16.5 lakh to a non-profit. “The spirit in the room on that day is magical,” says Yash. “It’s the India you want to be part of.”

Priya Ramani is a Bengaluru-based journalist and is on the editorial board of Article-14.com.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of BQ Prime or its editorial team.