When Kaushik Koganti and Teja Chekuri began the first branch of the now renowned chain of restaurants, Godavari, in the US, little did they imagine that just like the river Godavari, their growth would be a full flow, moving ahead making massive strides cutting across various places. What else could be said about such a humongous growth for a food chain started by two Indians with the only dream to give South Indian food a global identity?
Having started off in May 2015, when they setup their first restaurant in Boston, Massachusetts, little did the duo think they’d move to such a strength so soon and would establish 25 in total, in a period of fewer than three years. In a major development and milestone of sorts, they are celebrating the opening of their 25th story at Houston.
Kaushik, 31, recalls how it all began.
“When I had come to the US to pursue my masters degree in 2008, I obviously craved Indian food. However, I realized that there was a limitation in terms of flavours and that everyone compromised on spices in a bid to westernize the food. I always was keen on the dining business and I thought there was no better way than this,”
he shares. Interestingly, he also realized how the food of Andhra (and now Telangana too) was majorly limited to “Hyderabadi biryani”. “It sure is amazing food. But there’s a lot more to the flavours here and we wanted to bring that to the fore,” he tells us. In fact, the reason they chose the name Godavari was to Stay away from traditional names which are found at several places in the US.
In fact, even though the fathers of both Kaushik and Teja (35), who hail from Vijayawada, are friends, the duo didn’t quite know each other well at all till they landed in the US. “I liked his enterprising nature and discussed with him soon after the idea cropped up in my head. We had no second thoughts and had to jump in soon after,” shares Kaushik, adding, “I left my IT job overnight to pursue this dream, and today, I cannot be happier about that decision because the biggest pleasure comes every day when we hear of how over 10,000 people have dined at our restaurants almost on an everyday basis. There’s nothing more beautiful than giving the pleasure of good food to someone.” Today, Teja has moved back to India, while Kaushik handles the operations in the US. However, he tells us that Teja is at the helm and handles most financial matters. “He has been in the business for long (he owns the well-known brewery Prost that has branches in Bangalore and Hyderabad,North face real estate, Iron Hill brewery amongst other enterprises) and has massive experience which is a boon,” Kaushik says.
Though they are at a very important brink at the moment, when they started off, they didn’t expect such a massive growth. “Yes, we always wanted to go global. Godavari isn’t just for people in the US. In fact, our next branch is going to open in Muscat. We want to take authentic South Indian flavours global. We have realized that when there’s talk of food from the south of India, the menu is quite limited but we wanted to go far and beyond. But we didn’t think the growth would happen so quick,” he states.
But the journey here, though rosy at the outset, wasn’t quite easy. “The major challenge was finding skilled labour. It’s not easy to find people who can make this kind of food in the US. It has been quite a task that way. However, we were clear about one thing, we bring our customers the best of local food, something they’d get on the bandis on streets in India but with high quality. Flavours of the underdog and quality of the five-star hotels was our aim,” shares Kaushik.
However, when franchises come into the picture, it can get tough to maintain quality. “I agree. And that’s why when we decided to start off with franchises, the first thing we did was make things more structured. The chefs are trained in Boston beforehand and we want a uniformity in the way food tastes at every place. We take criticism seriously, and any feedback is discussed with the branch. Owners of our franchises have been very supportive in this journey,” he avers, elaborating that their aim was to always appeal to the westerner as much as the Indians.
“Indians would eat the food, no doubt. But we wanted others to taste our food in its authentic tastes. Indian food is spicy, and we do not want to subtle down flavours, just to suit them. Authenticity is our USP,” he says.
Meanwhile, the team of Godavari pride themselves on being “youngsters with a vision”. Kaushik elaborates, “We understand the importance of marketing and have gone all out in that area because that’s how we’d be able to reach out to people. Being savvy has helped us come up with innovative ways to tell people what we do. Jaswanth Reddy, Varun Madisetty, Sivam Shankar and Uday Gummakonda have all been major players in our growth and what we have managed to do today wouldn’t be possible today without their support.”
source: http://www.telugu360.c0m / Telugu360.com / Home> NRI Life> Diaspora / by Pranita Jonnalagedda / April 27th, 2018