SmellTheCheese - SmelltheCheese to see if its is Getting Old

Dear all ,

Over the last few months i have moved out of active trading and concentrating on studying enterprenuers and successfull business in the hope of starting one on my own at a later stage . As a part of this study i visited “Raghavendra Bhavan” Hotel in Anekal(taluk near bangalore) recently along with my friend Santosh AR … Here is a brief chronicle of what i observed during this trip !

“Raghavendra Bhavan” - A place which reminds of old world style of hotels like the famous MTR or the Vidyarthi Bhavan in bangalore . This is a hotel  which has existed  since the pre-independence days at the same location and it has been running since 64 years and has seen 3 generation of family being at the helm of affairs ..

Current   owner Mr RamDass Karanth has been running and supervising this place for tha last 34 years !!!

But  what struck us during this visit of the hotel was not its heritage or its history  but we were amazed by the focus on clealiness of the place  and the focus to quality of food!!!

Remember we are talking about a hotel which is in a small town like Anekal which is around 40 km from Bangalore and in this small hotel whose decor in the an earlier era i never expected to see clean kitchen …. When we got into the Kitchen we were surprised to see clean floors and utensils , in fact we were served our  breakfast within the kitchen and we gladly ate the breakfast without a worry …Have seen several posh hotel in bangalore ,but their kitchen are maitained very badly !!!  In fact after visiting their kitchen ’s of some hotels in bangalore i lost my appetite …

SO when we asked how he was able to manage this ? He says that the focus on cleanliness and focus on quality of what you serve were handed down to him from his grandfather … But i think the real reason is something else … I think the cleanliness and good atmosphere to work are more to do with the people and how well you treat them ..

When asked about his employees .. Mr Ramdass’s answer was …

 i treat my people well !! , i make them to work only 10-11 hours in a day (as opposed to 15 hours in Hotels in Bangalore). Give the employees the benefit of PF and other allowances (most of the hotels in bangalore dont take care of their staff apart from salary ) ….. This apart from giving all the boys a accomdation above the hotel. Each employee is given around 30 days of leave in a year , when they can go home and come back. He has several employees who are working with him for the past 10-15 years …

So much for the cleanliness part .. but what about the food !!

We had Dosa and KesarI Bath for breakfast …

The taste of the dosa was simply great and the dosa did not cause an uneasy irritation in the throat like the dosa’s in Bangalore hotels . He explained that in his hotel they never re-use the heated oil and never use vanaspathi …They only added pure ghee along with the masala over the masale dosa so that masala would blend with the dosa …

The dosa tasted better then the ones made in Vidyarthi Bhavan @Bangalore

Other striking feature which i noticed was the use of quality ingrediants in the cooking , only Sunflower oil from ITC was used to make the sweets . Oil used once will not be used again (as far as i know most hotels in Bangalore , re-use the oil fry things for several days before disposing it)

All this when the cost of the dosa is just 14 Rs ….. and not the usual 20 Rs (price in Bangalore)…

So this focus on quality at a low price to a audience in a small town is really amazing … This given the fact that there is no major competition around the place .. so even if the people were given lower quality they would come … but it was amazing to see the focus on quality depsite the low price at which the goods are being sold ..

When quizzed about the raising costs of inputs versus his low price in a small town .. he said that there would be no compromise on the quality of food served … He would just tinker around with the menu so that he was able to recover his cost …but no compromised on quality of food … 

Just when i was wondering about his quality focus , Jayanth  son of Mr Ramdass came to the kitchen and started to have his lunch there . Jayanth is a MBBS student who had come home on a vacation and he told me that he always eats at “Raghavendra Bhavan” when he comes to Anekal on a holiday …. It was then it struck to me “What quality means” do as to other as you would do for yourself …

This is why i have name this article as “Quality despite all odds” … It was an amazing expereince that we got from Mr Ramdass @ the Raghavendra Bhavan