Business
Diners’ delight
Bangalore’s Daddy’s Deli and Red Fork have added spice to life — for owners and clients! It is one of the few eateries where saas ni machhi and pork vindaloo (Parsi style) can be savored side by side with smoked salmon, yellow fin tuna steak with a potato asparagus romesco salad or blueberry sponge with a toffee and balsamic parfait! "On the Parsi side of the kitchen, we are capable of cooking for up to 100 customers. The Red Fork side of the kitchen has a completely different menu starting with breakfast (waffles, pancakes, eggs benedict and more…) and runs all through the day till dinner. We bake our own breads, churn out our own desserts and ice-creams and have almost completely stopped using processed foods like ketchup, sauces, etc. Everything is prepared in-house,” says restaurateur Zarine Kharas. The two eateries run by the family are located in the same premises on 12th Main, HAL, stage two, in the popular residential and commercial hub of Indiranagar. "On weekends our restaurants are filled with families, especially for breakfast. It’s a place where parents feel at ease to bring their children. Since we are also pet friendly, the garden area sees many dogs on Sundays enjoying the chicken frankfurters as much as their ‘parents’ do!” she describes. Weekday clientele comprises the office crowd, including Information Technology professionals for whom the city is renowned. "Evenings and dinners see couples and friends catching up. We have also catered for wheelchair access, so we have several senior citizens, and some very senior I might add, enjoying the experience.”
While Zarine and her husband Nozer Daroga have been running Daddy’s Deli for 12 years, Red Fork was set up last year by 23-year-old son Xerxes Bodhanwala (her son from her first marriage). "From an early age I was exposed to the joys of flavorful cooking and a wide variety of dishes in Parsi cuisine by my grandmother and mother. My decision to make culinary arts my career was made almost impulsively!” says the young chef turned restaurateur who graduated from the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu in Sydney, majoring in culinary arts management and gained valuable work experience in Australia before returning to India."Family ties and the family business pulled me back home and though I’m still considered young by many, I was keen to start my own niche bistro and café. I feel that Bangalore lacks restaurants serving ‘contemporary cuisine.’ My aim is to give customers a meal they will never forget and keep them coming back for more. So, eat different at Red Fork!” Daddy’s Deli is open only for lunch and dinner with a full Parsi menu; Red Fork functions from nine in the morning till 10 at night. Both are closed on Mondays. The menu on the blackboard proclaims Red Fork specialties – pork belly with Asian style salad, chicken satay with fiery noodle salad, zucchini and corn fritters, pork spare ribs with onion rings and chimichurri (sauce for grilled meat), wine, beer, beverages…
Daddy’s Deli had its origins in a small business center Nozer and Zarine set up 12 years ago in a small lane in well-known Richmond Town. Few professionals at that time could afford their own PC (personal computer) and hands and heads hard at work in the business center craved drinks and snacks! "We were soon compelled to organize a menu of sorts to feed those hungry stomachs – sandwiches with cheese and vegetables, submarines filled with chicken/tuna/egg… the kind of food one sees at a deli. We decided that Daddy’s Deli had a great ring to it and so the name stuck,” Zarine narrates. Three months into the task of serving, clearing tables and cleaning up as well, Nozer mooted the idea: "Why not start serving some Parsi dishes?” "I gave him the typical woman’s glaring look and asked, ‘Who do you think is going to do the cooking? Don’t look at me!’ But he had sown the seeds of challenge!”
Daddy’s Deli had its origins in a small business center Nozer and Zarine set up 12 years ago in a small lane in well-known Richmond Town. Few professionals at that time could afford their own PC (personal computer) and hands and heads hard at work in the business center craved drinks and snacks! "We were soon compelled to organize a menu of sorts to feed those hungry stomachs – sandwiches with cheese and vegetables, submarines filled with chicken/tuna/egg… the kind of food one sees at a deli. We decided that Daddy’s Deli had a great ring to it and so the name stuck,” Zarine narrates. Three months into the task of serving, clearing tables and cleaning up as well, Nozer mooted the idea: "Why not start serving some Parsi dishes?” "I gave him the typical woman’s glaring look and asked, ‘Who do you think is going to do the cooking? Don’t look at me!’ But he had sown the seeds of challenge!”
Soon, so popular were the dhansak, chicken farcha and lagan-nu-custard that the couple shut down the business center and opened the restaurant at Indiranagar. "Being a small, family run business, the greatest challenge has been funding. We were never, until very recently, able to do all that we would have liked to, both in terms of kitchen equipment and service area. It took us many years to slowly build the restaurant to what it is today. Had we been funded, our growth would have been much faster,” the lady explains, adding that for her and Nozer, it was more a trial and error kind of growth. She was totally new to the food business till Daddy’s Deli was established but Nozer had been associated with Waikiki and Friendly Ice Cream, "names that most Bombayites will remember since so many of us grew up on their frankies, pav bhaji and fresh fruit ice creams.”
For Bodhanwala, the world walked into his plate in Australia. "My first job at Ribs and Rumps, a steakhouse, gave me the opportunity to work with meats on the grill. I then moved to a tapas bar called Firefly where I was sous-chef,” he notes. A six-month internship at Club Med, though not enjoyable for him, provided the experience of working in hotel kitchens, churning out meals for very large crowds. "Just prior to my return to India, I secured a position to work at Morena, a Latin American fine dining restaurant.” Seeing the young chef in action now makes us realize how professional education and good training can make a difference in running a successful and profitable business, says his mother. "For us, during the first two years, total sales of Rs 4,000 a day was cause for celebration. We have grown from four tables and 16 seats to 24 tables and 75 seats; from cooking at home, for many months single-handedly with only a small kitchen at the restaurant to heat up the food, to a large, fairly well-equipped and well-planned kitchen – so we see our growth from a different angle,” declares Zarine.
Owning and running a restaurant is not the glamorous, money-making business it is popularly made out to be! Zarine asserts. "My father Pheroze (Phili) Kharas (ex chairman of the Bombay chapter of the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce who has recently been made director on the international board) has been my mentor. With his great experience, first in the corporate world and then in running his own business, he has been there for us from day one, encouraging us through the not-so-nice cycles of business, always proud of us. My mother Nargis too has given immense support.” Despite the back break and swollen feet from long hours of standing, success is sweet and "the greatest reward is seeing our customers returning for the same dishes even after 12 years; seeing dating couples getting married, married ones bring in their kids, kids turning into teenagers and having many customers become a part of our friends’ circle.”
For Bodhanwala, the world walked into his plate in Australia. "My first job at Ribs and Rumps, a steakhouse, gave me the opportunity to work with meats on the grill. I then moved to a tapas bar called Firefly where I was sous-chef,” he notes. A six-month internship at Club Med, though not enjoyable for him, provided the experience of working in hotel kitchens, churning out meals for very large crowds. "Just prior to my return to India, I secured a position to work at Morena, a Latin American fine dining restaurant.” Seeing the young chef in action now makes us realize how professional education and good training can make a difference in running a successful and profitable business, says his mother. "For us, during the first two years, total sales of Rs 4,000 a day was cause for celebration. We have grown from four tables and 16 seats to 24 tables and 75 seats; from cooking at home, for many months single-handedly with only a small kitchen at the restaurant to heat up the food, to a large, fairly well-equipped and well-planned kitchen – so we see our growth from a different angle,” declares Zarine.
Owning and running a restaurant is not the glamorous, money-making business it is popularly made out to be! Zarine asserts. "My father Pheroze (Phili) Kharas (ex chairman of the Bombay chapter of the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce who has recently been made director on the international board) has been my mentor. With his great experience, first in the corporate world and then in running his own business, he has been there for us from day one, encouraging us through the not-so-nice cycles of business, always proud of us. My mother Nargis too has given immense support.” Despite the back break and swollen feet from long hours of standing, success is sweet and "the greatest reward is seeing our customers returning for the same dishes even after 12 years; seeing dating couples getting married, married ones bring in their kids, kids turning into teenagers and having many customers become a part of our friends’ circle.”
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