For a growing number of people it’s no more parathas at home but bagels and waffles at swank eateries.
It’s Sunday morning and the American Diner at New Delhi’s India Habitat Centre is bustling with people; none of the 15 tables is vacant. Families, couples and expats can all be seen tucking into their omelettes. Bhupinder Singh, one of the attendants, has skipped his workout. But he has more than made up for by being on his toes all morning, taking orders and ensuring that the buffet spread is always full. “Breakfast is a busy time and this being Sunday is busier,” he says, serving black coffee.
A few days later, on a Tuesday, I am at Pehelwan Dhaba at Murthal on the Delhi-Chandigarh highway. There are about 40 people devouring parathas stuffed with potatoes and onions with generous helpings of white butter. There are whole families — the elderly, men, women and kids —, batches of single men, truckers and travellers, and the earthen ovens are working overtime to churn out parathas for them. Dushyant Singh, who has run the roadside eatery for 25 years now, says massive crowds will pour in over the weekend when people from Delhi drive 40-odd kilometre just for his breakfast.
Cities now have joints popular for breakfast alone — Crepe Station at Carter Road in south Mumbai, Flurry’s in Kolkata, Koshy’s and Egg Factory in Bangalore, Backpackers in Chandigarh and German Bakery in Pune, et cetera. Indians, accustomed to breakfast at home, are now ready to eat out their first meal of the day. From almost scratch a few years ago, breakfast is almost 2 per cent of the Rs 8,000-crore food market. The trend has caught on amongst commoners — those who down sausages, muffins and black coffee at American Diner, and also those who stuff themselves with parathas and mounds of butter at Pehelwan Dhaba — as well as jetsetters.
Alok Kejriwal, the CEO of Games2win, is one such breakfast person. His favorites are the Cricket Club of India at Marine Drive in downtown Mumbai and Gallops at the Mahalaxmi Race Course. “In the mornings you are buzzing with energy and a nice breakfast is the ideal way to start your day,” he says. Josy Paul, the chairman of BBDO, prefers Noshe’s Café at Colaba in Mumbai, Café Fontane at the Taj Palace in New Delhi and Koshy’s in Bangalore. “Breakfast for me is the most important meal as it sets me up for the day,” says Paul.
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McDonald’s had, a little over two years ago, started breakfast at a handful of its outlets in the North and East. Research had shown that there could be a market for branded breakfast. In a sample of 1,200 in the age group 15 to 39, comprising professionals and students across Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Ludhiana, 18 per cent preferred to eat breakfast out of home. This was a pilot to test the waters. The results, McDonald’s India (northern and eastern regions) Managing Director Vikram Bakshi says, have been better than projections. Breakfast sales have grown 30 per cent in the last one year. The service has since been extended to 17 outlets. These outlets get 7 per cent of their business from breakfast. In mature markets like the United States and Hong Kong, breakfast contributes as much as 22 per cent of business.
Bakshi wants to start home delivery of breakfast as well. As home delivery causes a 14 per cent jump in sales, this could raise breakfast’s contribution to almost 8 per cent straightaway. More important, research commissioned by the company shows that consumer satisfaction is higher for its breakfast than for other meals. But Bakshi treats the numbers with caution. “Nobody has branded breakfast like us. The novelty factor is at play here,” says he.
He could have competition soon. Subway and Barista Lavazza have started a limited breakfast menu. KFC, it is speculated, will soon run a breakfast pilot at some stores. The company neither confirms nor denies it. But then KFC entered as late as 2008 the United Kingdom, where breakfast is 10 per cent of the eating-out market. Dunkin Donuts, famous for its breakfast, plans to launch in India sometime this year with the Jubilant group of Shyam and Hari Bhartia. (The brothers have already tasted success with Domino’s in the country.) Starbucks, which has joined hands with the Tata group, too is expected to join the party later this year. All states allow restaurants to open at 6 am, so there are no regulatory issues here. Along highways and on airports and railway stations they can operate round the clock.
To be sure, breakfast out of home has been popular in the South for a while, perhaps because cooking there involves a lot of grinding and mixing. Elsewhere, especially in the metros, the emergence of nuclear families and the long commutes to work are pushing people towards eating breakfast out. Improved roads mean people don’t mind travelling a fair distance. And, of course, there are more options than ever before. Yogesh Mokashi, the owner of Egg Factory in Bangalore, says if you give people the option, they will happily choose to eat breakfast out. “Our culture had only a few corner shops serving breakfast or the five-star hotels. Now it’s more accessible and people are taking the option of eating out,” he says. “Earlier it was just the Udupi joints [for South Indian food] which the middle class used to frequent; but now it’s the cafes and fine-dining restaurants that are being patronised by the upper-middle class, which is changing the dynamics of eating out,” adds Technopak Advisors Associate Director Pratichee Kapoor.
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Five-star hotels have always had sumptuous breakfast buffets but those were restricted to guests or power meetings early in the day. The buffet was priced high and was therefore out of reach for the common man. That’s why most stand-alone restaurants have adopted a cautious approach towards pricing their breakfast menu. For instance, American Diner is not exactly cheap but value for money — for Rs 155, you can have the breakfast buffet which has croissants, muffins, toast and fruits. What helps is that most Indians go for a light breakfast — the lunch is heavy and the dinner heaviest. So, eating breakfast out doesn’t pinch too hard. The average bill for breakfast at McDonald’s is Rs 108, which is 10 per cent below Rs 120 for the rest of the day. Bakshi puts it down to the low introductory prices.
Most eateries that specialise in breakfast have refrained from typical Indian fare such as paratha, idli-dosa or aloo-puri. That, they feel, is best left to traditional Indian restaurants. Their menu is different, though the food is largely protein driven. Eggs are thus very popular. Crepe Station started with a simple menu of waffles and crepes in 2003; with growing footfalls, it has expanded its menu with dishes such as eggs and sandwiches. Riaz Amlani, who runs the chain of Mocha Café, feels gone are the days when people stuffed themselves with parathas in the morning. So, at Mocha, you will get waffles, paninis, bun maska and even Maggi noodles. At Flurry’s in Kolkata English sandwiches and croissants are popular. Guests have to wait for an hour on Sundays to get a table. Vineet Kumar, area sales manager of Hewlett Packard, is a fan of Flurry’s. “I had heard so much about Flurry’s fabled breakfast when I moved to Kolkata a year back,” he says. He hasn’t been disappointed and makes it a point to go every weekend.
At Backpackers in Chandigarh there are salads, sandwiches, crepes and pancakes. Amritesh Singh, its owner, says that change in lifestyle is bringing a change in the eating habits of people.
This is something that has taken Bakshi of McDonald’s also by surprise. When breakfast was started, he had thought only downtown locations would do well, where office goers, especially young people, could stop by for a meal. But he found that outlets in residential areas were doing equally well. “These are very often young housewives with their children. There are also travellers who are staying in some hotel nearby. During weekends, a lot of families come in,” says he. “I have seen elderly and middle-aged people having breakfast all by themselves even on weekdays.” Outlets on highways too are doing brisk business.
But he knows that the business cannot be scaled up to the whole country in a hurry. “We will probably be a little shy in Tier 2 and 3 cities. In such cities, people really don’t travel long distances to work. People live in joint families and eat at home. There are enough people to take care of your meals,” says he. “We are looking at metros, highways and special areas like airports and railway stations. Information technology hubs make a lot of sense.”
Sumit, the manager of McDonald’s outlet at Janpath in downtown New Delhi, begins his day as early as 6 am as he awaits the first set of customers an hour later. “At times, we get people asking for a Chicken McGrill at 7.30 in the morning,” he says. The staff is trained to explain to people what’s on the breakfast menu. Sumit says that a large number of college-goers as well as executives turn up for breakfast. His staff initially struggled with the menu as well as the task of explaining it to people. “Is it like a burger?” people used to ask about the McMuffin. What are pancakes is another question he answered on a daily basis. But now, he says there are regulars who come almost daily just for the breakfast.
