South Indian food on the go
Idly Express, a quick service restaurant serving authentic vegetarian South Indian fare is ready to open its doors in Mountain View on July 11th.
Idly Express is one of the brands of the famous Mylapore chain that also does food delivery and runs three full-service restaurants in Folsom, Pleasanton, and San Jose. About two months ago, it opened another full service restaurant- Mylapore South Indian Restaurant in Westgate Mall in San Jose.
“The USP of Mylapore is simple, clean, fresh South Indian food- a go-to place for an affordable priced meal. We have not complicated the business by adding too many dishes to our menu. We listen to our customers and have defined our market,” says Jay Jayaraman, Founder and CEO of the Mylapore Chain.
Jayaram is a graduate of the Hotel Management Institute in Chennai. Before moving to the US, Jayaraman worked at some of India’s top hotel chains like Oberoi’s, Taj, and The Welcome Group.
The Mylapore Chain
The Mylapore chain has three different business models that started with Mylapore South Indian Restaurant in 2008 in Folsom and expanded into different lines of business including food delivery and quick service restaurants where a customer tends to spend an average time of 45 minutes.
“Mylapore Express (food delivery service) is for the busy two-parent working households to whom we deliver fresh and healthy flash chilled ready-to-eat food to their doorsteps. We opened in 2018 and business grew 10x during Covid,” says Jayaraman.
“During Covid, we did food delivery throughout the U.S. including Hawaii using FedEx and UPS, but we could not continue. We lost money due to shipping delays and canceled customer orders. We decided that we would do what we could control. Now we deliver in the Bay Area using our own trucks and drivers,” adds Jayaraman recalling lessons learnt during the pandemic.
A pandemic lesson
Another pandemic lesson that led to the opening of the Idly Express outlets was how to deal with the labor shortage. Jayaraman conceived of a centralized kitchen hub with surrounding outlets from where patrons could take out food or sit down for a quick meal.
Mylapore’s centralized kitchen in Fremont prepares all the dosa, idli, and vada batters which are then transported to different Idly Express branches in Fremont, Milpitas, and San Ramon. Fewer cooks are needed as all the cooking occurs in the centralized hub according to a standardized menu followed by all the Idly Express locations.
“The concept of Idly Express started in 2021 and took off very well. We have grown rapidly in the last four years. Since the footprint needed to run an Idly Express is much lower, profitability is higher. We do not have Indian chain restaurants like Pizza Hut or McDonalds yet. We want to be that chain for Indian food at some point,” says Jayaraman.
Idly Express outlets
Mylapore is looking to open Idly Express outlets in Sunnyvale and Santa Clara in the next two months and then expand to San Mateo and San Francisco. San Jose and San Francisco airports are also being considered as possible Idly Express locations in the next 12-18 months.
“We are very careful with our plans. Too much rapid expansion can lead to a decline in quality. I want to first establish a strong team that executes in Northern California before branching out to Southern California, Seattle, and other places. The food business is amazing. If one can keep up quality consistently at a reasonable price, there is no way to fail,” says Jayaraman.
“I don’t want us to be the fastest growing Indian chain but one that is growing in a calculated way. We are not in any race. If we can create fifty to sixty outlets in the next five years and then scale from there, that is good,” says Jayaraman.