The DARE team braved the heat to go and meet those who specialise in beat-the-heat treats. There was, of course, also a selfish reason for the visit: we wanted to guzzle and slurp the good stuff.
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First Stop:Luscious Lassi
People are flocking to Rajat Gupta’s legendary lassi stall in Old Delhi like bees to honey. After a good 10-minute wait, we get our glass. This lassi is so thick you eat it off a spoon. Many happy gulps and a satisfied burp later, we take the busy man into a quiet corner of Khari Baoli and get him to spill the delicious secrets of his business.
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Gupta is one of the those who certainly doesn’t look forward to winter, and who can blame him? “My sales see a steep 60% drop in winter,” he says. But summer, that’s a different story. “Our peak months are May and June, during which our shop sees a footfall of anywhere between 1200 to 1500 people.”
Now multiply that by the price of a glass of lassi: `20, `25 and `30 (depending on what size you order), and you can do the impressive math for yourself!
Gupta’s winter strategy is quite simple. “We cut down on the variable costs,” he says, “so there is less of shopping for raw material, low labour costs and very few overheads. This helps us keep our heads above the water, but that’s about it—the profit between November and February is zero.
So has he ever thought of switching to a warm drink to attract winter traffic? The idea seems to appall him. “Oh no! Lassi is what we do. And lassi it will always be.” This deep sense of loyalty to the family business was a theme we found echoed in other similar localised businesses, too.
Next Jaunt: Creamy Kulfi
Kuremal ki Kulfi ka Karkhana, Mohalla Imli, Kucha Patiram, Bazar Sitaram.
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| Anil of Kuremal Kulfi |
Aam-tulsi ki kulfi, anar ki kulfi, and chandan ki Kulfi, made from pure kewra paste are only a few of the luscious flavours you can enjoy at this legendary shop in Old Delhi.
The 100 per cent natural kulfi has been a hot—or rather cool—favourite with the Nehru family and some top-notch business clans.
In winter, the business takes a huge hit: sales plummet to 40 per cent. “But then, you can’t expect people to feast on kulfi when they’re frozen like kulfis themselves,” says Sharma with a grin. The seasonal slump obviously doesn’t bother him. Like the lassi seller, he too cuts down on labour costs, and says the family chips in to churn out whatever orders they get.
A good strategic move has been to gradually taper off their retail operations, and cater mostly to hotels, restaurants, weddings and parties. This has ensured the business does not depend solely on footfall.
The grandson of Kuremal Mohanlal Kulfi Waley, Anil Sharma says this family business is more than 100 years old, and began much before there were tin glasses, or even ice. “Do you know, ice in those days used to come from Jammu and Kashmir. A horse would carry a load of it for about 50 kilometres, then it was passed on to the next horse in line, and so on, until the relay reached Delhi. Then the British would store the ice in a well.”
Pandit Kuremal Mohanlal used to sit on a mitti ka chabootra where the shop is now, with just a big matki full of kulfi. He used to come all the way from Palda village near Jhajjar in Haryana, at about noon, and stayed till 3 or 4, or till whenever he ran out of his day’s quota. The kulfi then used to cost 10 paise. Today, the same kulfi is priced at Rs30.
The Ice Candy Man @ Go Gola
This summer, Gola, traditional ice candy, has emerged from the depths of the thela-walla’s cart to occupy prime space inside plush malls.
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| Sachin Jain, Owner, Go Gola |
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While gola has always been wildly popular for its tasty thirst-quenching quotient, its demand among city-zens had been steadily going down on account of hygiene. The infamous gola vendors use dirty water and synthetic syrups making golas extremely inappropriate for consumption.
Sachin Jain of Mumbai spotted the opportunity and started India’s first branded and hygienic gola parlour—Go Gola. The first store came up in 2008 on Mumbai’s bustling Linking Road in Bandra. Today, Go Gola has 21 stores across three cities—Mumbai, Bengaluru
and Coimbatore.
The branded gola store uses mineral water and natural fruit flavoured syrups for making slurrpy golas that cost a minimum of `40. Some of the popular summer flavours are mango, water melon, litchi and kokum.
Sales are brisk in summer, but then Gola has done the smart thing by launching in cities where temperatures don’t see major ups and downs. To offset the dip in sales during the cooler months, Go Gola make milk made golas in winters amd also participates in events such as b’day parties, office parties, weddings, etc.
Stopping by for Some Chocolate
Think of a chocolaty marriage between the flavour’s milkshake and ice-cream, topped with flakes with a hint of any of these – milk, walnut, bitter chocolate, coconut, dry fruit and many more – and you get the best treat that will help you beat the heat.
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| Amit Pahilani, Owner, Café Chokolade | |
Amit Pahilani’s Café Chokolade features the singature drink Cad-B, which has become a rage among youngsters across the country. “You start something to make money, and already there is a lot of competition in this particular food segment. It wasn’t planned, it just happened,” says Amit.
Chokolade now has a huge footfall by establishing 20 stores in Pune, scaling up to 92 stores in 36 cities pan India. “We are opening so many stores that if one area is affected due to the prevailing climate, there are others that make up for the sales,” says Amit.
What also helps is that Cad-B is not essentially an ice cream, it is not as chilling and the sales don’t dip in the winter either. Interestingly, Pahilani is more concerned about the rainy season rather than winter, because the constant downpour is bound to keep people confined to their homes. But of course, the store is open throughout the week, and Pahilani says “we somehow reach up to our own expectations,” adding that that maybe because “Chocolate is addictive, no matter what the season is, everyone wants it.”
And Finally, a Roadside Feast
Raju, manfully pushing along an ice-cream cart on a sizzling summer noon, stops to tell us something surprising. “Who says ice-cream doesn’t sell in winter? I get dozens of young customers in the middle of foggy nights—sometimes the men zipping by in cars don’t even have shirts on; and I’m talking about January!” Hmm…Gen Next sure knows how to turn trends on their heads! We—and I’m sure the ice-cream sellers—aren’t complaining.
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