Meaty tales

“The restaurant was started by my grandfather Keshav Nevrekar,a body-builder,in 1950,when he came to Pune from Konkan. A reason behind starting a non-vegetarian restaurant stems from the fact that since we are from the Konkan area,our diet primarily consists of rice and fish and meat. Since my grandfather and his family were good at that,we started with our own non-vegetarian restaurant here,” says Sunil Nevrekar,the third generation owner of the hotel.

Right from chicken and lamb cooked in the traditional Konkani style with a lot of dry spices and coconut- based gravies to dishes made of minced meat and fish the restaurant sells them all. The small eatery,which began with a mere 15 items that were priced at less than a rupee back in the 50’s now has grown to over 100 items ranging from Rs 15 to Rs 75. “A very simple rule that my grandfather had established when he started the place was that all the masalas for the dishes would be made in-house and that the place would cater to one and all,as a result the prices are extremely low,” he adds.

And patrons,who have been eating at the restaurant for decades now,swear by the Rassa and the Chinoy Rice that is a speciality at the hotel. V Sethi,the manager of Alpana Theatre,which is a stone’s throw away from the hotel says,“ I have been eating here for the last 48 years and the taste of the rassa is just as it had been then. It is very pungent and spicy,just like all Maharashtrian non-vegetarian dishes are.”

Nevrekar himself says that the main difference between the Iranian non-vegetarian restaurants and restaurants like his,is that they use a lot of spices to generate the fiery taste of the Maharashtrian non-vegetarian dishes. “A reason behind the fiery taste is that Maharashtrians are traditionally used to eating spicy food with a lot of spices. For instance our rassa comprises of 25 different masalas which are hand ground to achieve the required taste and consistency,” says Ashok Yelkar the cook who has been working with Nevrekar for the last 33 years.

As far as future plans go,Nevrekar’s son Rahul,an automobile engineer says that he and his father do intent to take the legacy of the founder to a larger audience. “While we have things planned,they are all in the pipeline. As of now,we wish to concentrate on improving the quality further,” says Rahul.