Who Needs a Menu Card?!
Some weeks back I read that the latest trend in the hotel industry is to "throw away that Menu card." If you have a menu card, the thinking goes, you should have all the items printed in the card ready, for one wouldn't know what customers would order for! The inventory increases, workload increases, profits nose-dive. On the other hand, the thinking continues, if you prepare just a few selected items, the chances of success gets increased!
I saw this "latest" (!!) thinking in operation yesterday, when Vijaya and I were strolling down the Mada Streets of Mylapore. Next to the Kapaaleeswarar Temple, we saw there was a crowd jostling around a window. Curiosity taking over me, I approached the window and I saw to my amazement that there was a house on the other side of the window; and they were selling bajjis.
Just urulaikkizhangu bajjis and vazhaikkai bajjis. Only these two items. Persons, most likely Brahmin women, were making hot-hot bajjis inside the house, one person was packing them (five rupees and ten rupees), and one person was standing on the road near the window to handover the hot bajji-packs (to take home), or bajjis in a plate to eat there only.
Just for five rupees or ten rupees. You cannot imagine how these were selling! No jazzy name-boards, no flashing neons, no cushy chairs/tables, no liveried servers, no computer-bills, no AC, no nothing - but what a business they are having!!
Krithika tells me that "vengaaya bajji" is their strongest USP, people come from far-away places to taste their vengaya bajji. Yesterday it was not there, unlucky me! Her chithappa is a huge fan of this bajji shop, she says.
Yes, "throw-away that menu card" could be a real winner.
Rajappa
11 Apr 2006
Some weeks back I read that the latest trend in the hotel industry is to "throw away that Menu card." If you have a menu card, the thinking goes, you should have all the items printed in the card ready, for one wouldn't know what customers would order for! The inventory increases, workload increases, profits nose-dive. On the other hand, the thinking continues, if you prepare just a few selected items, the chances of success gets increased!
I saw this "latest" (!!) thinking in operation yesterday, when Vijaya and I were strolling down the Mada Streets of Mylapore. Next to the Kapaaleeswarar Temple, we saw there was a crowd jostling around a window. Curiosity taking over me, I approached the window and I saw to my amazement that there was a house on the other side of the window; and they were selling bajjis.
Just urulaikkizhangu bajjis and vazhaikkai bajjis. Only these two items. Persons, most likely Brahmin women, were making hot-hot bajjis inside the house, one person was packing them (five rupees and ten rupees), and one person was standing on the road near the window to handover the hot bajji-packs (to take home), or bajjis in a plate to eat there only.
Just for five rupees or ten rupees. You cannot imagine how these were selling! No jazzy name-boards, no flashing neons, no cushy chairs/tables, no liveried servers, no computer-bills, no AC, no nothing - but what a business they are having!!
Krithika tells me that "vengaaya bajji" is their strongest USP, people come from far-away places to taste their vengaya bajji. Yesterday it was not there, unlucky me! Her chithappa is a huge fan of this bajji shop, she says.
Yes, "throw-away that menu card" could be a real winner.
Rajappa
11 Apr 2006
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