Do you fancy having an office in a kitchen? If you do, you may ask P. Suresh what it means to have one. He has his office — a 50 sq.ft. space — inside the kitchen of the Sangeetha outlet in Adyar.
Spartan in its design, the office has a chair and a bench, which doubles as a bed. The CCTV monitor is turned off. The only striking feature in this office space is a picture of M.S. Subbulakshmi.
Now, P. Suresh is the partner of the Sangeetha chain of restaurants.
“I rarely switch on the CCTV monitor. The sounds from the kitchen next to my office and those from the one above me are what I want to hear. These sounds tell me that the restaurant has many customers,” says Suresh.
From earning Rs. 75 a month doing odd jobs at kitchens run by others to where he is, Suresh’s journey has been exciting.
Early years
Padmanabha Pothi was running a restaurant business in Thiruvananthapuram (Padmanabha is from Karnataka), but closed it down due to labour issues and shifted base to Chennai, where he ran Suprabath in 1980 in West Mambalam. Suresh, who did his pre-university, joined his father to run the business.
However, the business folded up in one-and-a-half years. Those were tough days for the family.
At that time, his elder brother Rajagopal was studying to become a chartered accountant.
Suresh and Rajagopal have five sisters. Suresh decided to give up on his dream of becoming a photographer. To augment the family’s income, Suresh worked at a hotel where he was paid Rs. 200 a month.
“I worked in the kitchens of Hotel Raj Bhavan, Nungambakkam, and Prakash Bhavan in Parry’s Corner. It was there that I learnt my first lessons in the restaurant business,” he recalls.
Later, his father opened Hotel Swathi at Broadway. After three months, Suresh dropped out of the business over some difference with his father.
Lessons learnt
Following this, Suresh left for Kochi with Rs. 120. In Kochi, he joined a Udipi hotel where he had a demanding schedule making tea for the customers.
After three months and a half, he moved to Nagercoil where he worked for close to 18 hours every day and slept in a crammed space.
“I was planning to go to north India, but my father and brother-in-law persuaded me to return to Chennai. The seven-month journey was my biggest learning experience; it helped me understand the problems faced by workers and what owners do to make profits,” he says.
After a couple of failed experiments, Suresh opened Sangeetha (the name reflecting his love for music, especially the kind offered by M.S. Subbulakshmi and K.J. Yesudas) in 1985 at Armenian Street. It was again testing times.
“I used to sleep at the shop and wake up at 4 a.m. I handled both the front-end and back-end operations of the shop,” he says.
It took 23 years for this outlet to make profits and it still functions from the same place.
Meanwhile, Suresh started helping others set up restaurants.
“That became my strength. From design to the purchase of the most basic of items, I helped set up restaurants. I become a worker and do all kinds of work in the kitchen. In 1990, I helped my brother open his first outlet in Mylapore,” says Suresh.
In 1995, the Nungambakkam branch was opened, after which they started expanding to various other neighbourhoods.
Suresh says every day is a learning experience and it’s customers who keep teaching them new lessons.
“I learnt a lot from the owner of Saravana Bhavan. I used to meet him after midnight to see how he managed his outlets. Janardhan Kalkura was another mentor,” he says.
Fifty-six-year-old Suresh still follows a hectic schedule: from visiting various restaurants to sampling over 150 dishes a day.
“There’s a lot more I need to learn,” he says.
