Where will the upcoming restaurant be, and when will it start?
We announced our intention to start a restaurant a long time ago. So, the first question most people asked was, where will the location be? The short answer is that it will be at Kallega, Nehru Nagar, Vivekananda College junction on the Puttur—Mangaluru highway. We will start service on Sunday, 15th January 2023, on the auspicious day of Makara Sankranthi. We will run the restaurant where Hotel Keerthana is presently running.

Why this location?
Since we are in Puttur, it should be somewhere in Puttur town. We don’t like crowded places, though there will be many walk-in customers. Reaching the place and parking should not be a challenge. So, we were looking at Bypass roads and highways around Puttur town. There were a few options suiting our requirements. Most restaurants drain the sewage directly into rainwater drainage streams. We are very conscious about treating the sewage well before passing it. This place has a sewage treatment plant. So, we decided on this place.

Why a running restaurant?

• A running restaurant will have regular, existing customers and businesses, so the restaurant does not need to start at 0.
• We tried to sell the land at Kallarpe but couldn’t. So, we don’t have much money to buy land, build a building, or even set up the restaurant from scratch in a rented space.
• It is risky to start a new business, and there will be many trials and errors while establishing one. A running restaurant would have already passed that phase.
• It already has all the necessary setup to run a restaurant. Only a few repairs, cleaning and enhancements are required.

Overall, the finance requirement and time required to start the service are minimised. We have another short two months before we have to start. We have our tasks cut out.

Wood Pressed oils are a craze now. This can be seen in the products sold on Amazon and the number of such outlets opened in towns because of the massive consumer preference. I don’t say they are wrong because they compare it with what they consume today, i.e., refined oil. However, they are wrong when they compare wood-pressed oil with corresponding expeller-pressed crude, filtered oil. Health consciousness should rise, but they should also know what is healthy. Not go with what is popularly happening but scientifically reason it. Usually, what is priced higher is good, but not always. This fad about wood-pressed oil is one such exceptional case.

We don’t debate that wood-pressed oil is inferior to refined oil. Wood-pressed oil is far superior to refined oil, period. But is it the best way to make oil? The answer is NO! Let us analyse this.

Two types of machines to extract crude oil from copra

• Expeller is a fully closed arrangement; moisture should be removed entirely from the copra.
• Rotary is an open conical grinding machine; moisture must be present in the copra for lubrication.

Debate – which is better?

For expeller

• Moisture causes oil to go rancid. A better extraction mechanism should remove moisture so that expeller oil has a longer shelf life.
• The expeller squeezes more oil from the copra than the rotary. So, extraction efficiency is better, oil costs will be lower, and oil cake will have lower oil content wasted.
• By increasing the size and supplying more power, an expeller can crush a greater quantity of copra. This allows automation of the entire process on a larger scale.
• Oil extracted through an expeller from dried copra can be filtered online through a filter press. Oil extracted from rotary from moist copra can only be filtered by sedimentation, which will take 7-10 days. So, an expeller gives faster throughput and requires less inventory.
• The oil smells and tastes better because copra is heated to some extent.

For rotary – only argument

• Copra is not heated, so the properties of coconut are retained.

What properties of coconut would have been lost by heating? The common answer is vitamins. Any coconut oil contains 99.9% fat and 0.1% moisture. That means there is no other nutrient in coconut oil. Forget Vitamins; coconut oil has no carbohydrates, proteins, or minerals. It is only fat.
Heating may go up to 80 degrees in the expeller and 60 degrees in the rotary. At both these temperatures, the fats don’t undergo any change. If heating food is bad, then why do we cook rice, roast chapatis, and pasteurise milk? Shouldn’t we consume them raw?

From the rotary, it goes further down to the wooden rotary instead of the steel rotary.

• The extent to which oil is squeezed from copra is even lower. So, oil yield is lower, labour cost is higher, and hence, oil cost is much higher.
• The heat generated is even lower. So, there is no value addition of heat.
• Wood absorbs moisture and oil and retains it. This isn’t good for food hygiene and safety.
• When the wood press is unused, bacteria and fungus develop on the surface.

So, we have argued that rotary oil is inferior to expeller oil, and wood-pressed oil takes it a step further and is inferior and more expensive.
Now, in an expeller, roasting copra before oil extraction increases the quality to another level by enhancing flavour, taste, aroma, and shelf life.

I intend to start a new vegetarian restaurant in Puttur within a year.

Why new business?

Our existing coconut oil business has matured. We took massive loans to start, and now we have almost cleared all the debts raised. The product variety and quality are established, the distribution network is established, the internal team is set up, and the e-commerce channel is doing well. To grow the business, we need to hire more sales staff. Hiring and managing them is a tremendous challenge. As plan A, we will keep trying to grow the sales team. Plan B is to start a new business to grow.

What will be different in this new business?

When I started my last business, I was unmarried and in my late 20s. Now, I have reached 40, am married, and have two kids. So, my risk appetite is much lower. The capital invested will be much lower, and accordingly, debt, if at all raised, will be much lower.

Selling coconut oil was through retailers. If providing a quality product is the brand’s goal, earning more margins by selling a cheaper product is the retailer’s goal. So, the retailer acts as a huge barrier between the brand and its consumers. So, in this new business, I want to reach out directly to the consumers.

What will be common?

Brand Cocoguru and the values it stands for that is pure, hygienic, safe, high quality, technology-enabled, professionally managed, innovative, green food products.

Why Restaurant?

I am a foodie, I like eating. Till I reached 30, I only looked at the taste value of food and used to eat chats, Chinese, North Indian, spicy foods. Now my body is not liking them for its unhealthy nature. Restaurants are known commonly for their dirty kitchen and use of cheaper ingredients. So wherever I go, it is always difficult to find a restaurant of my choice. I believe there will be a few people like me whose needs are not met currently.

How will this be different from other restaurants?

There are many hard decisions which will upset many customers by reducing their choices and narrow our offerings significantly reducing the income opportunities.

• Local—The food on offer will be only traditional Tulunadu vegetarian dishes. Though much wanted, there will be no Chats, North Indian, or Chinese items. An objection here could be, “Don’t we anyway make this at home?” What exactly is the idea? It should be “just like how it is made at home.”
• Simple – The number of items on offer are only a few. Menu should fit in one page. This way we will be able to best serve the few dishes on offer.
• Fresh – I don’t like to eat leftover food the next day. So, though it is commercially tough, we will serve only freshly prepared food.
• Hygienic – Hygiene has been a glaring feature of our coconut oil mill. Since it is about food we take into our body and for calmness of mind, it has to be clean and hygienic. It may come with a cost but I believe people will value it.
• Healthy – The purpose of going to a restaurant is to satisfy our taste buds. But in the long run, health is more important. So purpose is to provide food that tastes good and is yet healthy.
• High Quality Ingredients—Restaurants are commercial ventures, and customers are very price conscious. So restaurants usually end up making food with low-quality ingredients. We have the experience of making and selling premium coconut oil, so though it is tough, we have to make it happen. One key ingredient is the cooking oil. All hotels use only refined and hydrogenated oils as they are cheap and can be reused a few times. We will use only coconut oil and ghee.
• Technology enabled—I am a fan of technology and understand how it makes our lives easier and benefits customers. The menu presentation, ordering, payment, order fulfilment, and marketing will all be technology-driven.

When do we plan to start?

The idea was thought about a year ago, but execution didn’t take off. There were a lot of uncertainties due to the coronavirus. Also, I thought of funding the venture by selling off the land I was holding. I wasn’t able to sell it. Now, it is time to move on despite the excuses. So, I have set the deadline as June 2023. The plan is to use the next 10 months to learn hotel management, perfect the recipe and taste of the dishes served, work out a thorough business plan and acquire all resources required.

Where will it be located?

With a lower risk appetite, lower capital, and keeping it more flexible, the restaurant will be rented. So it will be somewhere in Puttur town, wherever a suitable place is available at the time we start.

What will be the name?

The name thought as of now is Cocoguru Adigemane. Cocoguru to leverage the brand already built. The values of this restaurant will be the same as the idea with which the coconut oil brand was built. Adigemane to indicate that it is a local, homely, coastal Karnataka food business.