Rameshwaram Cafe expands: To open first highway branch on Hosur Road

Purists taunt Rameshwaram Café as “overrated and overhyped” and food groups keep discussing “the excessive ghee factor”. But its stellar growth in such a short time is unparalleled, with the launch of five outlets in four years, that too in a city where legacy restaurants like CTR, Vidyarthi Bhavan (whose owners steadfastly sticking to a single branch) and 100-year-old MTR (yes, multiple branches, gone global as well), still are huge crowd-pullers.

And the QSR (quick service restaurant) is raring to go. Wait, their first-ever highway branch — and the biggest — is also in the works. 

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The vegetarian restaurant, run by the couple Raghavendra Rao (a mechanical engineer) and Divya Raghavendra Rao (IIM-Ahmedabad), has also remained in national news this year after a low-intensity Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off at its Whitefield branch last March, injuring nine.

“We could have anticipated anything, certainly not a bomb blast. It took some time for us to recover from the shock and yes, we had our entire security apparatus revamped after that terrible, terrible episode. The good news is that we have moved on and are experimenting further with our food, menu and locations. The idea is to represent all-South and cater to the larger Indian and global audience,” says Raghavendra Rao, on a balmy Bengaluru night, sipping a coffee outside its brand-new, relocated branch in Indiranagar.

As we talk late in the night, the traffic on Indiranagar 100 Feet Road is dwindling and after-work diners walk in with a gustatory smile, looking to savour a panoply of dishes, with the chat drifting into the making of Rameshwaram Café, the brand. And its road ahead.

Let us start with the biggest grouse. Your liberal use of ghee seems to have divided the city itself, leading to social media trolling.

(Laughs). I am aware of the trolls, and we get feedback from our customers. Yes, using ghee liberally has been a conscious decision, and there is a reason why we do the same.

If you look at our ancestors, they mostly used ghee and traditional oil such as sesame or coconut oil for cooking. Not a day passes without the use of ghee in our home also. What we serve is what we eat and believe in.

We have decided not to use the so-called refined oil which is nothing but chemicals. Ghee is probably the healthiest ingredient in that sense, plus the enhanced taste it offers. And we use coconut oil (sourced from Kerala) for our curries, besides seasoning/greasing.

Just to add, we use only Nandini ghee, the best in the country. We could be the largest buyer of Nandini after Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD).

On trolling, I follow Basavanna's advice: The ones who slam you help you grow, not the ones who praise you.

Bit curious...if you can reveal, how much ghee do you use every day?

In fact, we have set up a measurement policy for every single ingredient we use, from mustard to batter to oil to masala to ghee. For around 35-40 dosas, we use 1 litre of ghee. Remember, not every drop is counted as it gets lost in the heat and cooking process. 

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Five outlets, including Hyderabad, in four years, and more are coming up. How do you define your success/growth/journey?

Immense hard work + smart operations + fresh food. As owners, we put in around 17-18 hours every single day. I take care of the administration and my wife, the finances.

The kitchen is fully my territory, where my wife is not allowed (laughs), and I take care of every single thing that happens there. When it comes to finance, she is in charge. We have a team that works 24/7 on shifts.

We also ensure no one gets overworked — we have set up different teams for multiple functions. For instance, the restaurant is shut for one hour for ‘deep cleaning’, which is managed by an exclusive, dedicated team.

I must salute the boys who make dosas standing amidst searing heat in front of tawas. Our operational team makes sure that they are not overburdened, taking turns. There is a system in place, assisted by technology, but at the end of the day, it’s all about serving good, fresh food.

The Karnataka government has allowed restaurants to run 24/7. Are you ready for the plunge?

Certainly, we have always wanted to run 24/7, but for the permission. Now, I believe the police department still needs to give the final nod, and our association is in talks.

It’s easily doable, and we eagerly look forward to having all the outlets open 24/7, 365 days. As you may have noticed, our outlets don’t have shutters or doors. You walk in anytime and have fresh food!

How confident are you about the crowd response, say at 3-4 am?

Given the city’s vibrant population, diversity, and work culture, the crowd keeps coming in. Our regulars are international travellers flying in and out mostly at night.

Again, when we open at 5 a.m., there is a considerable crowd who is heading home after work. Then there is the random crowd that walks in just for the heck of it. After 12, it’s fascinating to see the young crowd settling in with their dosas or pongal with sambar poured all over it and coffee over conversations and little chit-chats. 

How is the crowd pattern? Are you getting repeat customers?

Repeat customers are our strength. For any hotel business, that is a must. You must make your customers come back. If Whitefield is full of young couples, Rajajinagar is packed with the family crowd. Indiranagar and JP Nagar, it’s quite mixed.

Since you are against the centralised kitchen concept, how do you maintain consistency in every outlet?

From the inception, we were clear that every restaurant has to have a kitchen where the food is freshly made and served. Every 30 minutes or so, we grind fresh chutneys. The same goes with batter throughout the day and night.

For a QSR outlet like ours, human intervention is a must, whatever technology you may have deployed. We can’t cook food and serve it after 5 hours.

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Also, we never carry forward food the next day. As I said, having a measuring system is an advantage. Make (only) what you need. In case of wastage, we discard them, sometimes as pig feed. That is why individual kitchens work so better than a single, centralised kitchen somewhere far away.

Yes, it’s not easy to run it this way as there is a huge cost involved, including real estate. You know, our investment per outlet is around Rs 15 core. If you notice, only 30 per cent of our total space is kept aside for dining, while the rest is all for logistics, cooking and storage. I could have easily added more dining space if we were to compromise on other things.  

In a way, it’s amusing to see people sit on the floor or steps and have food, especially in Rajajinagar. Incidentally, Bengaluru is known for its darshini restaurants, where people stand and eat quickly. 

Again, we wanted people to have food the traditional way — sitting down, conversing, and sharing. The concept is a bit like a temple offering. We are really glad people have gleefully accepted the way we conceived it. 

You seem to be experimenting with your food, by adding more dishes from other states as well.

Recently, we added a thali (which is called Anna Lakshmi), taking cues from all southern states. Our plan is re-presenting the South. So, dosa will be served with Tamil Nadu sambar and Karnataka chutney. We have added Kerala kadala curry (black chickpea) which goes well with khali dosa. Then pootharekulu, the famous sweet from the Andhra palette and recently, Malnad thambuli.

Our thali has 20+ items from all South states. For upma/khara bath, Karnataka is the best, while Tamil Nadu Pongal is unbeatable. Karnataka-style tari idli, with neer chutney, is going crazy. There are interesting eating behaviors we have noticed, like most people prefer tari idli (with rava) in the mornings, the normal idlis (thatte) at night. We closely monitor such patterns and get the menu tweaked. Before introducing a dish, our 500-member team will have a series of discussions on it and the majority will take the final call. There are times when they have shot down my suggestions as well. 

The last time we spoke, you were on the verge of launching in Hyderabad. What next?

Yes, we are expanding into new territories. The idea is to offer a larger South platter, encompassing every state. When I was at the Ambanis’ wedding [Rameshwaram Café ran the South food counter], the response to our food was seen to be believed. Frankly, I was overwhelmed. There has been a growing interest in Southern cuisine in the last few decades, even globally.

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Dubai is certainly on the cards. We are keen on Mumbai and Pune as well. Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Surat) is another state where we have big plans. In Bengaluru, two projects are lined up at the International Airport (opening in a month or so) and Hennur Road. And there is one coming on Hosur Road.

So that is the first highway outlet?

Yes, it’s a massive project, and we are all excited about it. Structurally, it is totally different from what we have done so far. Spread over an acre, it will have a huge dining space that can accommodate over 10,000 people during the day.

We are toying with multiple ideas, like setting up a huge hall where people can be seated on the floor and served banana-leaf meals, like the good old days. There is space for cultural activities, and it’s an experiment no one has tried. Construction is on, it’s our biggest project yet.

How has the show been in Hyderabad, the first one outside Karnataka and with different culinary buds?

It’s a challenge, and we have tweaked the menu a bit. Interestingly, we had to up the spice levels. If we put 100 g of chilli powder here in Bengaluru for a curry, it will be 400 g there.

It’s amazing how the food habits change when we travel, say, a few hundred km, and matching those expectations is the biggest challenge. In such a risky business like ours, each day is different. There is no smooth run.