Restaurants
Bengaluru Oota Company braved in the face of the lock downs
A D Singh, founder of Olive Group of Restaurants had predicted that 50% of the restaurants would not reopen after the 2nd wave. Independent restaurants do not have access to funds or investors to survive. Yet, Bengaluru Oota Company thrived in Covid.
Divya and Vishal opened 38 cover Oota in 2016. It served regional cuisine of Karnataka. It charged people per head, and not per dish. During the first lockdown it launched takeaway service with weekly menus. Through word of mouth more people started ordering food. Later it launched a subscription service with Dunzo. Ota also launched Habba box meals for festivals such as Ugadi and Eid.
Priya Ramani wrote in Bloomberg Quint, “Some days, there was a line of delivery agents outside Prabhakar’s restaurant and she had to enlist the help of the neighbourhood police station for crowd management.”
Divya shares two key things for surviving the pandemic. One, there were fewer overheads such as serving alcohol. It takes up space, money and documentation. Two, changing the plans as things change. Oota saw the opportunity, and changed its menus.
P.S. They opened again on July 14th.
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