McDonald's Taps Out-of-Home Breakfast Market As It Becomes Footfall Driver for Standalone Restaurants

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

FOR THE second year in succession, McDonald's celebrated National Breakfast Day, which is its own invention, on Monday, March 24, by handing out thousands of McMuffins gratis to early-bird customers at designated outlets. The five in Delhi-NCR even test-marketed the idea of an all-day breakfast served from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., taking a leaf out of similar packages now offered by five-star hotels to the cater to the requirements of the many body clocks of world-travelling international patrons.

Out-of-home breakfast may seem to be an idea that is alien to India (why would anyone want to have breakfast at a McDonald's when you can dig aloo parantha or dosai at home?), but as the demographics of our cities change, the trend seems to be catching on.

A McDonald's Breakfast Favourite:
Sausage Egg McMufffin. The QSR
chain can draw solace from the
success of the breakfast offerings
of standalone restaurants

Actually, it is not as foreign to our culture as it may seem at first glance. The breakfast offerings of Saravana Bhavan, Murugan's Idli and MTR are established favourites; the crispy stuffed paranthas of Murthal dhabas continue to attract Delhiites by the carload at breakfast time; the popularity of jalebi-and-hot creamy milk treats at places as varied as Jodhpur, Lucknow and Varanasi shows no signs of diminishing; and Purani Dilli's bedmi-aloo is worth a trip to Chandni Chowk, especially on a Sunday.

McDonald's is simply tapping into this market, and if the following at home of its Egg and Chicken Sausage McMuffin and pancakes bathed in molten butter and maple syrup is any indication (though my personal favourite is the McEgg Burger, which I recommend strongly to all!), then it must be succeeding. Restaurateurs offering breakfast share the fast-food chain's confidence in this segment of the organised restaurant market, or what its spokesman, Rajesh Maini, calls the "massification of breakfast".

The All American Diner at Habitat World took the lead about 15 years ago by introducing a breakfast offering. Today, according to Old World Hospitality's F&B Director Rakesh Anand, as many as 175-200 people daily have the Diner's breakfast between 7 and 11 a.m., and the number goes up to 250-300 a day for the weekend breakfast (in the summer months) or brunch (in the winter) buffet laid out on the lawns.

Most of the people opting for the weekday breakfast option are Lodi Garden walkers; Habitat World has 58 guest rooms, but not more than 15-20 of the guests come down for breakfast, for most of them prefer to have it served in the comfort of their room. The rest of the breakfast guests are residents of Golf Links next door, students unwinding after all-nighters and professionals working in offices in the neighbourhood. Anand, in fact, claims that it was the Diner that popularised the idea of breakfast meetings.

Families and specialised groups, such as those devoted to cycling or to burning Harley Davidson rubber, dominate the weekend turnout. The only flip side of the business, Anand points out, is that "breakfast is the most difficult service in terms of human behaviour". Apparently, if you are doing breakfast shift, you get to know all about people getting up from the wrong side of the bed. "That explains why for breakfast shift we only have cheerful, non-intrusive staff who are sensitive to guest feelings," adds Anand.

At Smoke House Deli, Khan Market, whose breakfast menu matches that of the All American Diner in both variety and quality, the morning turnout can be split into two time bands: 25-30, mostly expats on their way to work, between 8:15 and 9-9:30, and another 20-25, mostly desi, opt for a "lazy breakfast" between 9:30 and 11.

Sharing this information, Sid Mathur, F&B Director of Impresario Hospitality & Entertainment, the company that owns Smoke House Deli, said the out-of-home breakfast market has been growing for three reasons: "A lot of people, especially young professionals living away from their families, don't have full-time help at home; people's tastes have changed -- they're moving away from paranthas; and young double-income couples are increasingly finding it more convenient to eat out."

Well, paranthas are no longer hot in this market segment. At Smoke House Deli, Eggs Benedict is the reigning favourite. McDonald's, then, has a good reason to be confident about the future of the Egg and Sausage McMuffin.

Saravana Bhavan Tops Table in Delhi Gourmet Club's 'Dosa Dance' Led by Facebook Phenom Atul Sikand

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

WITH THE migrant population from the south finding employment in growing numbers at government institutions, a band of enterprising Udipi dosawallahs moved to Delhi to make their fortunes by serving them from the back of bicycle-drawn carts. They served the office-going crowds, took over canteens at such
bastions of the Capital's southern population as the Press Trust of India, which for years has been jocularly called the Palghat Trust of India, and got migrant Punjabis addicted to the lightly spicy potato-packed crepe that everyone knows as the masala dosa.
This is one vegetarian preparation (along with the accompanying sambhar and chutneys) whose mass appeal cuts across linguistic and economic barriers. The masala dosa is ubiquitous, and has held its ground even after the onslaught of fast food and Barbeque Nation, in the Republic of Butter Chicken. What the southern superstar Rajnikanth couldn't do, the humble masala dosa has achieved--it has invaded Delhi. The credit for making the dosa a sought-after speciality must go to a runaway boy from Udipi who started his life as a dishwasher in a canteen before going on to establish the Sagar-Swagath restaurant empire. The hero of this rags-to-riches story is Jayaram Banan. He was the one who made the Punjabi gentry of Defence Colony discover dosas in the days when he used to make them himself on his bicycle cart at a tree-shaded spot right opposite the location of the original Sagar Ratna, which Banan opened in the neighbourhood market in 1986.
As his business empire grew (the majority stake of the chain, valued at Rs 200 crore, was picked up by the New York-based portfolio management firm, Indian Equity Partners, in 2011), the quality of his dosas became uneven. I blame it on rapid expansion and indifferent franchisees, and now the media is agog with reports of differences erupting between Banan, who's still chairman of Sagar Ratna Restaurants, and Indian Equity Partners.
With so much happening in the world of dosas, it was to be expected of the Delhi Gourmet Club (DGC) to set off on a 'Dosa Dance' across the city to zero in on the best. The jury consisted of well-travelled DGC members from different walks of life--a travel industry professional, for instance, who used to run a cooking

The Delhi Gourmet Club's jury rated the Saravana Bhavan's
dosas as the best in the city. It scored 39.33/50, 0.33 points
ahead of Tamil Nadu Bhawan, which was at No. 2.
Image: Courtesy of www.tripadvisor.in

school in France, an international lawyer, a senior Times of India executive, an editor with Bloomberg, and a management consultant with strong views on the provenance and authenticity of dosas.
The leader of the jury was Atul Sikand, who has become a Facebook phenomenon--his global recipe-sharing page, Sikandalous Cuisine, now has 10,000 (and counting) followers. With a leader like Sikand, it was to be expected of the jury to be tough with its assessments.
Sure enough, none of the 10 restaurants shortlisted for the Dosa Dance scored above 39.33/50. I wish, though, that they had more on the list, such as the United News of India canteen behind the Planning Commission building; Kausstubh at DLF Place, Saket; Southy on Aurobindo Marg (near Adhchini); and the mithai shops Anupam Sweets (Greater Kailash, Part II) and Evergreen (Green Park). It would have given us an idea of the variety available across the Capital. Also missing were restaurants from Karol Bagh and Mayur Vihar, which have major concentrations of migrant populations from the south.
The jury clearly wasn't impressed by the credentials of the shortlisted restaurants. Upsets naturally were to be expected.
Sagar Ratna, the original and not some franchisee outlet, finished a lowly seventh in a field where a minuscule 0.33 points separated the winner (Saravana Bhavan, Janpath) and the first runner-up (Tamil Nadu Bhavan, Chanakyapuri, which was clearly the surprise of the pack). Carnatic Cafe, which is at the back of the New Friends Colony Market, came third, although everyone just loves it (and it is Rahul Gandhi's favourite haunt, when he's not visiting Smoke House Deli, Khan Market). Saravana got top billing because of both the consistency of its offerings and the care that went into the accompaniments (sambhar and chutneys).
It is followed by another long-time favourite, Delhi Karnataka Sangha on Rao Tula Ram Marg, which beat Chidambaram, Khanna Market, Lodi Colony, an icon for Delhi's Tamilian population, by just 0.63 points. Chidambaram apparently lost out because of its unsatisfactory paper dosa!
The top five were followed by five established names in the business: Sri Gururaj Udipi at Munirka; Sagar Ratna at Defence Colony; Naivedyam at Hauz Khas Village; Bhaja Govindam, next to Delite cinema, on Asaf Ali Road; and Ananda Bhawan at the Main Market, Green Park. Their lowly rankings made me wonder whether they had become victims of the complacence that their early success brought upon them. Or have the got trapped in a time bubble and are unable to do anything about the writing that is loud and clear on the wall?
The jury, which covered two outlets in a week without letting the restaurants know what they were up to, tasted three dosas--masala, paper and rawa onion--per establishment. In each case, they asked for the masala dosa filling to be served separately so that they could taste it as it is. Each dosa was judged by its crust (crisp outside, soft within), fillings, accompaniments (sambhar, gunpowder and chutneys) and, most important, overall taste. The points given by each judge present were added up and the weighted average became the score that the restaurant got. Apparently, as you'd expect from a qualified jury, the variations in scores were minimal.
With their effort, the 'Dosa Dance' jury has given foodies in Delhi and visitors to the city a list to refer to when they are overcome by dosa cravings, which is not an uncommon happening. The Delhi Gourmet Club now has four such well-researched lists--butter chicken, classic hamburger, seekh kebabs and dosa--to offer to foodies who wish to discover the city's best-kept secrets. Another one--this time on pizzas--is being released soon. Watch out for my report on it.