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Kasa’s Love / Hate Relationship with Yelp

July 6, 2010 by Anamika
How do I feel about Yelp?  Hmmm. If I’m really honest, I would say we have an intense love/hate relationship.
Kasa Castro and Kasa Marina are blessed to have excellent Yelp ratings — “people love us on yelp” :) — and many new customers find their way to our doors via Yelp.  For this, I am grateful and LOVE Yelp.
I also LOVE Yelp when we get reviews where people get our concept, appreciate our passion and recognize the food’s authenticity and quality.
And even though one of the hardest things on this planet is to receive negative feedback, we carefully study feedback as it allows us to learn what we are doing well and ways we can improve.  We also get to see how my staff is doing in delighting customers.
For all this, I also LOVE Yelp.
However (and you knew there’d be a however)….there are times when I want to tear my hair out, throw my laptop out the window and scream to no one in particular: “Come and say that to my face!”  Or “Go get a life!”  Or “What in the world are you talking about?” and “Clearly you are a vicious competitor posing as a Yelper!” (Whew, that felt good.)
Those outbursts are aimed at the small minority of Yelpers who have no idea about the topic that they have a strong negative opinion on.
My favourite examples are:
“The naan didn’t taste like naan.”  –> That’s because we don’t serve naan. We serve roti.
“Why are they serving Mexican black beans?”  –> We don’t serve black beans. We serve black lentils (daal).  There are dozens of different types of lentils.
“Why are there white people serving us Indian food?” —> We live in the United States of America!
And my favourite most hated comment: “It’s Americanized Indian food.”  –> It’s homestyle Indian food, different to what people may have tried before.
There isn’t much to do during these moments.  My first reaction is to fume and feel hurt and disappointed that people don’t realize their flippant remarks affect the hard work and love that we put into our business. Eventually I get over it, read the review again to see if there is useful feedback and remember why I love Yelp.
But I do secretly wish that I could concoct my own 1 to 5 star rating of these handful of ignorant yelpers based on the following criterion:
1 – How cute were they?
2 – How funny were they?
3 – How cheap (with their tip)?
4 – How clean (did they buss their table)?
5 – How polite?
But who has time for that? I just get back to trying to delight each and every customer… and the love/hate relationship with Yelp continues…
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My Kingfisher (Calendar) Obsession

June 8, 2010 by Anamika

If you’ve ever been in to Kasa, you would know that we are one of the few restaurants that offer cold Kingfisher beer on tap. It may as well be India’s national beer by the amount it is consumed there. It’s a light, clean tasting, refreshing Indian lager that (surprise!) goes so well with Indian food. Customers love it and their eyes light up as they order one. I can literally see them begin to relax before they’ve even taken a sip.

I myself am somewhat obsessed by Kingfisher because they do a couple of things REALLY well:

  • Despite serious competition from foreign brands, they dominate in beer sales in India.
  • As though that weren’t enough, they operate Kingfisher Airlines. Only in India can you get away with flying a plane (a really cool one at that!) with the very same name as the alcohol you bottle.  They have the highest market share among Indian airlines and have been given a five star rating by Skytrax. (Only five other airlines have this award, including Cathay Pacific and Singapore Air.)

  • And then, last of all, they have the very very cool Kingfisher Calendar. I may not be politically correct here in enjoying this calendar but they get the absolute hottest gorgeous Indian female models, take them to beautiful exotic locations, put them in swimsuits and using their best photographers create a stunning calendar!

Getting hold of a hard copy of this calendar is very difficult here in the U.S. For now, all I have for you is the link, but Cousin Kiwi is working on getting hard copies for me from India.  I’m not entirely sure why I REALLY want one. Maybe it’s because a few of my male cousins, friends and lesbian friends would love me forever if I gifted them one, or maybe I could start a side business of selling Kingfisher calendars to other obsessed persons..  Either way, if he gets me some, we’ll have some fun contests and give them out as prizes at Kasa.

Take care and enjoy!

Anamika

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My Favorite Indian Things in San Francisco

May 27, 2010 by Anamika
Although Indian by decent, I also consider myself British and, now after 10 years in SF,  American too.  Other than six years spent at boarding school in India, I was born and brought up in Hounslow, London.  Which may as well be Punjab, India.  I don’t lie when I say almost everyone there was Punjabi, and if not, then they’re from some other part of India.  (If you’ve seen Bend It Like Beckham, that was filmed in my town.)
There are a couple disadvantages to being raised in such a lack of diversity, such as everyone pronouncing jalapeno and tortilla exactly as they are spelled, or (on a more irritating note) people always being interested in whom you were dating and whether/when you are getting married.
However, there are some serious advantages to being submerged in everything Indian:
  • Language – it was very easy to keep alive my family’s mother tongue of Punjabi.  Practically all my friends’s parents and grandparents spoke Punjabi.
  • Threading – this is a serious advantage for Punjabi women….you can go to any corner and get your eyebrows looking fantastic within seconds!
  • Music – I witnessed some amazing fusion Indian/western music and dance.  Bally Sagoo remixes are amongst my favourite.
  • Food – I learned to make countless dishes from friends and family, and more importantly, I internalized what they were supposed to taste like.
  • Culture – I learned about the festivals and religious events celebrated in India and just the general Punjabi nature of being.  Most Friday nights there’d be a dozen dinner and dances going on, where you’d be guaranteed to get a basic chicken curry, bhangra and a punch up.
In San Francisco, I sometimes miss some of those things Indian (other than people getting into your business), but I’ve found some true gems here to satisfy that part of me:
  • Yoga Tree in the Castro is truly epic yoga.  I’m learning Sanskrit verses like never before.
  • Bibi of Bibi’s Skin Care & Threading on Fillmore Street for threading is by far the best I’ve ever had.  A true artist.  I’ve even received compliments by strangers on the street on my eyebrows.
  • Seema Shah teaches my little daughter and a bunch of other adorable 5 years olds some truly original bollywood dance moves.  She’s still building her website, so contact me if you want to reach her.
  • Stanford’s Holi Mela is the best Holi celebration outside of India.
  • El Sobrante Gurdwara is a beautiful Sikh temple in the hills north of Berkeley where you’ll find some of the most original (and free) Punjabi food in existence, as well as some peace of mind if you visit it when it’s not busy.
  • And of course I hope that Kasa Indian Eatery stands amongst the list as serving some of the most authentic home style Punjabi food.
As for dinner and dances, you’ll find those around the Bay Area but not many in the City itself.
This June 5th however, the American Indian Foundation are putting on a swanky dinner and dance gala with Kasa food, performances by Seema and her dance group and more at R-80, a very cool venue in Potrero Hill.  All proceeds go to the very noble cause of providing funds to under served children’s education in India.  You won’t find your your basic chicken curry and hopefully no punch ups, but the Kasa crew will be making kati rolls, Indian chickpea salad, Gobi Fritters, Mini Chicken Kofte and there will be lots of dancing!
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The Resiliency of an Entrepreneur

May 12, 2010 by Anamika

So Suresh (my wonderful husband, co-owner of Kasa, Google employee) is speaking next week at the San Francisco Small Business Conference about how small businesses can use online tools to manage their business (using Kasa as a case study).  It got me thinking about entrepreneurship and how much resiliency is required to be successful.

When we meet other small business owners, there is a definite and instant camaraderie, an unspoken understanding that we belong to the same club.  No matter our product or service, our shared painful, exhausting, rewarding and sometimes humiliating experiences bond us together (even if we mercilessly compete with each other).

Acquaintances often ask us to share our experience of running a restaurant as they consider embarking on their own dream venture, so this post is for those brave souls.  I will say that Tim, Suresh and I are still seriously in learning mode even after 2 years, but so far this is a collection of what I’ve learned.

If you’re confident about your food and can raise enough money to get started, then you’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg. Thereafter, no matter how much preparation and due diligence you’ve done, chaos will ensue.  This is some of what we have been dealing with:

  • Smelling of Chicken Tikka ALL the time
  • Not seeing your children and family for days at a time (no exaggeration)
  • Being self critical to an extreme and disciplining yourself with an iron fist
  • Scrubbing things clean for hours
  • Lifting stuff so heavy, you permanently have shoulder or wrist aches
  • Controlling your emotions, not showing how upset or angry you are
  • Stopping yourself from stalking and throttling an ignorant yelper (although mostly people LOVE US ON YELP, and we LOVE them…   :)
  • Paying attention to mind numbingly boring details
  • Thinking, eating, sleeping and dreaming your restaurant
  • Listening to everyone on your staff’s issues and dealing with them
  • Going wherever necessary with your menu to shamelessly promote your restaurant
  • Making mistakes and moving on optimistically
  • Learning Spanish at 10pm at night after a long day at work
  • Watching your friends have a social life on the weekends without you since it’s your busiest work time
  • Trusting your instincts and confidently hiring (and firing) people
  • Forgetting about privacy – your phone is on 24/7
  • Having unyielding faith in your food and concept
  • Giving up everything you own to the bank, including your first born child
  • Did I mention…smelling of Chicken Tikka ALL the time!

On the flip side, there is nothing more I would rather be doing with my life as I love Kasa deeply — despite the occasions when I feel I can’t take the stress any more, like the time I checked myself into a hotel for the weekend, told Suresh and Tim I wasn’t coming in and switched my phone off.  I pretended to be a tourist with my English accent, walked the city, met a bunch of friendly Americans who gave me recommendations on where to eat, shopped and went back to Kasa recharged.

Most importantly, prepare to pace yourself and take a vacation before a breakdown.

If you’re still up for plunging ahead despite all this, then you’re as mad as we are and we look forward to bonding with you as a comrade in arms one day.

Anamika

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May 5 at Kasa Marina: Indian Laundry special dinner

April 25, 2010 by Anamika

I’m very excited to invite you to a special dinner that we’ve cheekily dubbed “Indian Laundry” at Kasa Marina on May 5th at 8:30pm.  For just a few hours, we’re going to deviate from our relaxed counter-service to bring you a treat: a full-service five course sit down meal that I will personally prepare, with each course paired with wine by the extremely talented sommelier Mark Bright from Saison.  Mark and I will host the dinner.

We want the experience to be communal and intimate, so expect to eat family style, make new friends, try amazing wines and push your culinary boundaries.  We’ve limited the dinner to the first 16 people who reserve tickets by calling Kasa’s co-owner Tim at 917-535-0148 to pre-pay. Tickets costs $75 – click here for the menu and more information.

So why are we doing this?
At Kasa, our regular offerings are comprised of our favourite six dishes (plus a couple daily specials), alongside our favourite chutneys and raita. But there is so so much more to Indian food, as it is a complex cuisine with a never ending list of dishes and regional styles.
At our Indian Laundry event, I want to showcase Punjabi food a level deeper than you might normally find.  I want to highlight the cuisine’s ability to take an ingredient to its highest potential using herbs, spices, fats (in moderation) and heat (both fire and sunlight) to produce delicious and sometimes surprising results.  At the same time, I want the meal to be subtle enough where guests can taste the ingredients and  feel good afterwards. To me, this is the ultimate fine dining.
This isn’t always easy to do, as some foods are easy to love (french fries, sweet and sour deep fried anything) , whilst others require a little more sophistication of the palette, and a little more foresight about how you might feel later on.  Indian food, at it’s best, is able to achieve this.
My menu for Indian laundry is intended to bring potentially unfamiliar and interesting flavours like fresh bitter yet addictive fenugreek leaves (not normally found in a restaurant but a regular Punjabi household fare), and deeper richer tastes like Saag Lamb to the table.  We’ll also have achaar (pickles) that are currently out in the sun souring in my garden and a variety of unique chutneys to enhance the meal further.   Some of these flavours are bitter, some are sweet and some tangy, all with the use of amazing ingredients like tamarind, jaggery or celery seeds.

Some of these dishes can be difficult to do on a normal basis at Kasa because of the time it takes in the sun for instance, or when certain dishes cannot hold up to large batch cooking, or crunchy savoury pakoras become soggy if not served immediately.

I’m also grateful to Mark Bright for recognizing this potential in my cooking and agreeing to pair and serve the wine on the night.  (Mark also designed our wine lists at Kasa.) We’ve become friends through our joined love of good things in taste (food and wine) as well as our love for taking people through that journey with us.  And so we are putting together Indian Laundry at Kasa.

I hope to see some of you at the event.  Get your tickets today!

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