With this new interview series I, Mani Mukhija, wish to spotlight on people who worked in the path of living their own dreams and know what they did to achieve their visions.
Thousands of people dream of owning a restaurant. Most of them dream of owning a successful restaurant.
During the last week, I spoke with restauranteur/entrepreneur, Sunil Handa and his wife Renu Handa, who dreamt of owning a restaurant. They have been successful in achieving their dream.
Sunil Handa has 30 years of experience in hospitality. He started his career in five star hotels in India, working at Ashoka Hotel, Hyatt Regency, and Kanishka. He and his wife, Renu, have owned restaurants for the last ten years starting in California. He currently pursues his passion in the food industry as the owner of Saffron Indian Cuisine located in the 'Queen city' Charlotte, North Carolina in the United States.
Read on to learn about their journey, and what it's really like to start out in the restaurant industry.
Sunil Handa: I have two daughters Shannon and Rachel. Shannon is a Yoga Teacher in Amsterdam, Netherlands and Rachel is doing MSW from Long Beach.
Sunil Handa: My wife, Renu Handa is very good with Customer Service and also with memorizing our every day's guests names. She handles front of the House along with networking. Whenever & wherever I need assistance in the business, she is available.
Sunil Handa: This restaurant is like our baby. So, we both make sure that our customers always leave happy and come back for yet another experience. Not just this, they go out and spread the word about our restaurant after having a wonderful time at the restaurant.
Sunil Handa: Our food is authentic and quality & taste are consistent. We use all the flavors & spices, however, to make it spicy hot, or mild/med for our customers, we always ask them about the level they can handle. We have 1-10 scale and we let them taste three of our sauces at the beginning to make sure which scale they can handle. A word of mouth works very well for us because of personal service by my wait staff, me and my wife. Cleanliness plays a big part in our success too.
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