Gas runs out at ‘Ladu Samrat’: LPG crisis shuts iconic Mumbai vada pav hub

Sadguru Cafe opposite Sandhurst Railway Station had put up a poster in its premise saying “Due to gas crisis, all items_preparations will be curtailed. Please support us.” Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee

The shutdown marks one of the most visible signs yet of how the commercial LPG shortage is beginning to affect everyday life in Mumbai’s food economy.

The Ladu Samrat brand was started by Rakshe’s grandfather in 1967 in a small shop in a chawl in Lalbaug. The shop later shut after the building collapsed, a tragedy that also claimed the family patriarch. His father revived the brand in 1991. Today, apart from the Lalbaug outlet, the family runs a mithai manufacturing unit in Chinchpokli and two restaurants — Shobhaa Only Veg and Annamaya, both in Byculla. On Wednesday, all three establishments were closed.

“We never thought this could ever be a problem… Only our mithai shop is open,” Rakshe said, adding that he had tried unsuccessfully to source additional cylinders.

Although the closures are costing the family business Rs 2–3 lakh per day, Rakshe said his bigger worry is the impact on staff. “We will recover the business. The problem is uncertainty that our employees are facing.”

The family employs about 230 staff members, most of whom live in company-provided accommodation. “I have 3 cylinders with me but they are for the staff’s meal. They will last me another three to four days.”

Like many restaurateurs, Rakshe has been exploring alternatives such as induction cooking but says shifting operations quickly is difficult. “The operation is huge, and can’t be shifted overnight… What if we have an electricity outage tomorrow?”

The disruption is being felt across the city’s eateries, with some restaurants closing temporarily and others drastically cutting their menus. In Dadar, the decades-old Adarsh Upahar Gruh also pulled down its shutters on Tuesday.

“On Friday, we used our last cylinder, and we could somehow manage till Monday evening,” said owner Nohar Singh.

Singh’s modest 250 sqft eatery, which operates between 11 am and 11.30 pm, serves vegetarian thalis priced at Rs 100 and non-vegetarian meals at Rs 150. Located close to Tata Memorial Hospital and KEM Hospital, the restaurant caters largely to patients and their families.

“A lot of cancer patients who come to Tata Memorial come to us for their meals because we make it home-like for them,” Singh said.

His employee Sonu Kumar, who earns Rs 12,000 a month and sends most of it back to his family in Jharkhand’s Koderma district, said the closure has left workers anxious. “Why will the boss pay me if the business is not there? We will have to go back,” he said.

At Singh’s other restaurant in Dadar, Hare Krishna, the lunch menu has been reduced to a single offering. “We outsourced chapati, and made rice, dal and sabji in one batch. We have stopped everything else from dosa to even tea and coffee,” said a staff member.

Another nearby eatery, Manchow Point, has also remained shut since Monday. “There is no gas so the boss said we have to close the eatery,” said staff member Kedar Sharma, who is from Nepal and fears he may have to return home if the situation continues.

Some restaurants are attempting to adapt by switching part of their operations to electric appliances. Among them is Abhishek Shetty, who runs Hotel Sadanand in Crawford Market.

“It helped me dish out two mini meals, each comprising a sabji, dal, chapati, rice and pickle. We can also do idli, vada and dosa. But tandoori roti is not possible, and we have stopped a-la-carte and Chinese items for now,” said Shetty, who spent much of the past two days reworking his kitchen infrastructure to support the new appliances.

Staff are also being trained to adjust to the new setup. “They are used to working with big utensils, and now there is a limit to how big a utensil can be,”  he said.