ANKITA SINGH - FT13110

Smackalicious in Mamallapuram

Mamallapuram is a tourist destination situated in Tamil Nadu. It is known for its good beaches, historical monuments, sculptures, and food. There are a huge number of visitors every year for holidays from October to March. Good food is a part of a good holiday. I have eaten food at two of the most famous restaurants in Mamallapuram – Le- Yogi and La Pizzeria De Mama. Foreigners visit these two restaurants most often because these are the only restaurants that serve both Italian and French Cuisine. La Pizzeria De Mama is known for its thin crust Pizzas.

Mr Muji had worked as a waiter for a restaurant in Pondicherry where he learnt a whole lot more than just serving food. He learnt how to account for inventory, talk to customers and cook French and Italian food. By the end of two years, Muji felt that he was ready to own a restaurant. The restaurant “Le yogi” was started by Mr Muji on 22^nd December 2006. "La Pizzeria De Mama" on the other hand was started in January 2012. The interior of both the restaurants has been influenced by the Buddhist culture. In both the restaurants you can sit at a table or on a cushioned mat on the ground which is very comfortable. But beware -- after a large, delicious meal it might be very tempting to lie back and go to sleep.

The cooking style in “Le Yogi” and “La Pizzeria De Mama” is simple with French, Italian and South Indian influences. He manages well to bring out the authentic French flavour in the dishes, thanks to his wife who is French. According to Mr Muji, he hasn’t done any marketing for his restaurant. His first customers were friends of his who loved the food at Le Yogi and thus recommended the restaurant to their friends. The target customers for Mr Muji’s restaurants are the foreigners who visit Mamallapuram. The restaurant “Le Yogi” is recommended by most tourists. It has also been mentioned in famous guide books like The Lonely Planet and The Times Food Guide and newspapers like the Indian Express. This means that targeted customer base promises higher rate of return visits.  By focusing, customers tend to tag a restaurant to a particular style of cooking and recommend the restaurant if their friends crave the type of food that it offers. This leads to indirect marketing. Also, the mention of his restaurants in guide books and newspaper articles resulted in indirect marketing.

Inventory :  The raw material for the food is purchased weekly.  Ingredients like Chicken, Fish, Veggies, Masalas are bought from the local market in Mamallapuram. Whereas, ingredients like cheese, olives, tuna, ham and sesame bread are purchased from a vendor in Pondicherry.  On an average 300 kilograms of raw material is purchased per day in the months of December to March (peak tourism season).  In the non- peak season, 30 kilograms of inventory is purchased daily.

Menu : Lasagnes , pizzas, pastas, nepali momos, seafood like red snapper fish, calamari, tiger prawns are the most popular items from the menu. The sea food is fresh i.e. the stock is replenished on a per day basis. A red snapper can cost anywhere from 500-600 rupees. Apart from the sea food, the rest of the items on the menu are reasonably priced (average of 170 rupees per food item). While deciding the price of a product he takes into consideration inflation. When pricing the product they put a profit a margin ranging from .5% to 4%. Because of high competition, the profit margin cannot be very high. As a restaurant owner, Mr. Muji has put in a lot of effort in understanding different cooking and presentation techniques and has imparted that knowledge to the cooks and wait staff. All the kitchen and wait-staff hail from Nepal or North East India. After talking to them I learnt that Mr.Muji treats them very well and that they enjoy working for the restaurants. 

The restaurant is open from 8 am to 11 pm. Peak season starts from September and ends in March. During this season both restaurants manage to make profits worth 3 lakhs per month. During off-peak season, the restaurants are less crowded, but they still operate and manage to bring in a profit of one lakh twenty thousand per month.

Running costs for both the restaurants covers items such as :

•  Purchase of raw materials for cooking. (2,00,000 per month)
• Taxes to the government- for liquor (2,00,000 approximately per year)
•  Wages,  repairs, electricity, water , etc. (85,000 per month)
• Labor insurance twice a year (400 per person)
• Rent for Le – Yogi (2500 per month)
• Rent for La Pizzeria De Mama (750 per month)
• Initial deposit paid to the owners of the space (3,00,000 for both the restaurants)

What more can Mr. Muji do?

He can obtain feedback from customers and then analyse the data to search for a room to improve. He can learn how to use an inventory management application on his computer. He can prepare a business plan and apply for a small business loan. With this additional money he can consider expansion by starting a restaurant in Pondicherry. He can install a credit card billing machine so that customers can pay using the credit card.

Special feature:  I noticed that the owner and the manager were serving tables and not the workers working there. According to me Mr. Muji has managed to open a restaurant in a cost effective way with cuisine adjusted to Non-Indian and Indian palate. As a sideline business, Mr Muji sells jewelry, paper art and incandescence sticks.  

I would recommend Le- Yogi and La Pizzeria De Mama because of variety on the menu and friendly staff. Enjoy!!!

*The data for the profits and running cost has been approximated to the nearest value as per the owner.