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Features

TECH MASALA

on

THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY

A slew of Bengaluru’s iconic old-world restaurants have taken the technology route. Bharath Joshi and Divya J Shekhar trace the transition

Then HR Sridhar opened Iyengars’ Bakery in Austin Town in 1981, his vision was to make it a go-to place for Bengalureans for the choicest bakes. Its honey cakes, potato buns and veg puffs became iconic over the years and Iyengars’ forged an irreplaceable bond with the city’s ecosystem. The brand triggered nostalgia in elders, who passed it on to the youngsters. Now, with Iyengars’ Bakery in its 35th year of existence, Sridhar’s sons Raman and Lakshmeesha believe reputation will not be enough to fall back on in the long run. Ecommerce, theyrealise, is the need of the hour.

“We had to convince dad about it. People do not have the time to drop in these days. So we have to adapt to what they want,” says Raman, 25. The result, Iyengars Bakerycom, allowspeople to order the bakery’s popular offerings online. While the website is being ramped up, Raman says it gets them at least 10 orders on weekends and 4-5 on weekdays. They deliver across the city.

A similar story is that of Shree Vasavi Condiments that offers signature snacks like nippats and obbattus on Bengaluru’s original food street in VV Puram. In a month, the eatery, which was started by KS Geetha Shivakumar in a small house in Mavalli in 1995, will join a growing list of Bengaluru’s old-world eateries and hotels that are embracing technology to engage with a wider customer base. At the steering wheel of the eatery that gave South Bengaluru the annual ava-rekai (beans) festival is Swathi Karmakar, 29, who took charge from her mother Geetha Shivakumar two years ago.

The professional management has some plans lined up. “We are in talks with delivery portal homemadeonline.in,” she says. Over the next one year, Swathi will finalise plans for Vasavi Condiments’ expansion into Canada. With online delivery player’s like Swiggy, BigBasket and Grofers making everything from groceries to gourmet food available at the click of a button, traditional businesses are pushed to acknowledge the winds of change. The new generation that took over Mavalli Tiffin Rooms (MTR) about 15 years ago was quick to realise that the tra-ditional model was not scalable. “Post 2007, we introduced MTR 1920, which gave the brand a’contemporary appeal.

Basically, while there was a need to standardise and modernise a few operations, at our core we remain the same,” says Vikram Maiya, managing partner, MM. Technology, according to Maiya, probably came last to South Indian cuisine. At MTR now, batter grinders bring significant savings in time and manpower. Electrification of dosatavas is underway. There are conveyor belt dishwashers at Indiranagar and JP Nagar. Models are being worked out to reduce 500-sqft kitchens by half. The iconic Bengaluru brand, which is present in Singapore and Dubai as well, is also doing trials with blast feeding technology, where live bacteria can be put to sleep and regenerated on requirement to preserve batter.

However, even for the younger generation, making the technological switch is easier said than done, says Mayank Bidawatka, cofounder of Goodbox, a city-based startup that provides small businesses a mobile app presence. “The sons or grandsons have taken over in most. Technology is about adapting to every individual’s developing taste buds. These restaurants represent a time that was. So as long as the technology does not dilute that essence, it is the right way to go.”

Post 2007, we introduced MTR 1920, which gave the brand a contemporary appeal. “Basically, while there was a need to standardise and modernise a few operations, at our core we remain the same

VIKRAM MAIYA, Managing Partner, MTR cases.”

They understand it is an adapt-or-die time but there’s still the let-me-ask-dad feeling.” When Arun Kumar Adiga, 42, quit his engineering job to join his father Ramakrishna Adiga in managing Gandhi Bazaar’s iconic Vidyarthi Bhavan in 2005, he saw tradition at its best. “I saw our staff making bills and keeping accounts the old way. What age are we living in, I wondered.” Four years ago, the hotel computerised its billing and bookkeeping. Arun Adiga now wants to introduce credit/debit card payments but it is not easy. “There is a lot of internal resistance from our employees who’ve been around for so long. They are used to a certain way of doing things. It’s difficult to convince my own father.” If all goes as planned, Vidyarthi Bhavan may intro-duce a mobile app for reservations. Some establishments have stuck with the familiar.

The sons or grandsons have taken over in most cases. They under-stand it is an adapt-or-die time but there’s still the let-me-ask-dad feeling

MAYANK BIDAWATKA, cofounder of Goodbox

Brahmin’s Coffee Bar in Shankarapuram, which serves idli bathed in delicious coconut chutney, briefly introduced a `tap-and-pay’ card for payments in 2014 but stopped it-as the service provider could not sustain it. “Something like that is convenient to customers without altering core methods. At the end of the day, people come here to experience old Bengaluru,” says owner Radhakrishna Adiga. Food expert Kripal Amanna says that technology-embrace is the need of the hour for these iconic restaurants, which otherwise would be at danger of becoming irrelevant. “Technology is about adapting to every individual’s developing taste buds. These restaurants represent a time that was. So as long as the technology does not dilute that essence, it is the right way to go,” says Amanna. “After all, it is the only way to connect with the younger generation.”

Source: Economic Times
(Photo: static1.squarespace)

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