It all started when the couple and co-founders of Benne, Akhil Iyer and Shreya Narayan, craved for an authentic Bengaluru styled dosa in Mumbai. While there are a lot of South Indian eateries in the city, none matched their standards and expectations. So, they decided to themselves give the city and its people their favourite childhood food with the launch of Benne last year.
Founding the café
Shreya gives all the credit to her husband for the birth of Bandra’s most famous self-service café. They were confused while naming it having Bangalore Breakfast Club and Filter Café as other options. On the opening night Narayan was still a little ambiguous and suggested selling the café! But her husband had full faith in his vision and ideas and strongly believed that their venture deserved a chance.
The founders have not been in the Food and Beverage Industry. In fact, Akhil owns a production house (The Artist Collective) and Shriya is a practising Counselling Psychologist, but they’re still finding ways to carve out time every day to make their restaurant dream a reality. They chose to set it up in Bandra due to Akhil’s personal sense of belonging to the place.
The reason behind the buzz
Benne is based on the concept of Bangalore Darshinis. Darshinis are typically small self-service cafes that offer a limited menu of all-day specialities; think fast food, except fresh and filled with local flavour.
“Every neighbourhood in Bangalore has its own darshini,” explains Shriya, “When I moved away I realised how much I missed them. Now whenever Akhil and I go back, we go straight from the airport to our favourite darshini, before we even go home. It was always a special experience for me and we wanted to bring an updated, tech-forward version of that to Mumbai.”
What makes the place so charismatic and appealing, especially to the Gen Z audience is the fun name allotment system that gives unique nicknames to the customers who have placed their orders.
“The names were Shriya’s ideas,” says Iyer. “We basically didn’t want to give people just a number and make them feel like they are a kaidi [prisoner] number 420,” he jokes. “We wanted to make them people like they are in Bangalore even if it’s for a second.” This led to them brainstorming 100 different names that were inspired by the city. These names include area names, cricketers’ names, Narayan’s ex-boyfriend, Iyer’s math teacher from school, and much more. “My favourite is Sultanpalya Shakir,” grins Iyer, telling us that SultanPalya is an area in Bengaluru.
Menu
On the menu, you have limited but delicious offerings – Plain Dosa, Masala Dosa, Podi Dosa, Idli, Vada, and Ghee Podi Idli and a few others. To wash it all down, you have an amazing selection of hot and cold beverages! The limited yet soul-satisfying selection of food truly makes ordering less of a hassle and more of a fun experience.
The Bollywood buzz surrounding the café gives it an extra edge. Celebrities from Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma to Deepika Padukone are among frequent visitors. Another special thing about this place is its focus and attention to sustainability. They use plates made of areca nut leaves and their takeaway boxes are made of biodegradable bagasse, a fibrous residue of sugarcane stalks.
Success: Now and Ahead
The café has received an overwhelming response with people lined up everyday to get a taste of the authentic food. So much so that they have added an extra day to their roster and are now serving 5 days a week instead of four. But judging by the outpouring of love and appreciation they’re getting for their concept and quality; they could probably fill the space 24/7. In conclusion, its safe to say that there are still yet golden days ahead in store for Benne.
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