COLVA: Brothers Raymond and Daniel Rodrigues took the plunge into South Goa’s hospitality sector the hard way – with no training or experience in food, no business acumen, no investors, and no particular social or people skills to write home about. “In hindsight, it was a foolhardy decision to think we could just ‘start a restaurant’ and be successful. But we also had nobody to advise us against it,” laughs 36-year-old Raymond, who, along with his brother Daniel, started the small café in Colva in 2018.
From a two-man show which required the siblings to juggle multiple roles - waiting tables, brewing coffee, cooking, baking, and then washing up and cleaning, the café has now grown to employ 15 people. “We serve food that we like to eat and came up with recipes through trial and error. We learned most cooking techniques from YouTube,” says Daniel, 34, who admits that he sometimes wishes he had gone to culinary school.
While he graduated in Fine Arts, Raymond completed a bachelor’s degree in commerce, and neither of them had any major plans for a career. They took up a series of odd jobs – Daniel worked in events and later on at a call center in Mumbai, and Raymond worked in sales, followed by a stint roasting coffee beans at a specialty chain in Mumbai. “Our father had fallen ill, and it was not easy to show up at work amidst hospital trips; career had to take a backseat,” recalls Daniel.
Originally from Betalbatim, their father Joseph Rodrigues’ family had migrated to Congo around 1915 but were forced to flee in the late 1990s when war broke out and the rebel army took over their home and cattle farm there. “We went back to Congo once in 2014, to see if the business there could be revived; but the war had taken its toll; it was a humbling trip,” recounts Raymond.
After their father passed, the brothers were at a crossroads. “We were fed up with the dead-end jobs and thought, why not start a business. We like eating tasty, wholesome food, especially breakfast. We used to recreate the fluffy pancakes and delicate crepes my mum used to make for us,” says Daniel, who has vivid memories of her elaborate meals, even though he was only six years old when she passed on. “I had developed a passion for coffee, and as a roaster, I learned to brew and taste it. Our parents had left us some land in Colva. With Daniel handling the food and I, the beverages, it seemed like a solid plan,” says Raymond.
With a loan from a family friend, the siblings erected a shed and started their café on a shoestring budget, serving eggs, breakfast, sandwiches, and dessert. “Coffee was brewed manually, or in a moka pot, baking was done in a tiny OTG. Service was really slow, and some of our customers made sure to tell us,” says Raymond. “We did not promote the café much as we could not handle too many customers at once. We are sticklers for quality, and since we did not like the bread available on the market, we started baking our own bread too,” adds Daniel. Similarly, every time they were unhappy with the quality of a readymade ingredient, sauce, or condiment, the brothers decided to try and make it in-house, adding more to their respective workloads. “Before we realized it, we had ended up making nearly everything from scratch – from caramel and chocolate sauce to mustard, berry compote, peanut butter, etc., in our kitchen,” says Daniel.
Slowly but steadily, through word of mouth, their patronage grew - especially after the lockdown. Goa’s post-pandemic boom allowed them to buy better equipment and hire cooks and waiters, and eventually transition into a bar.
“Yes, our efforts were finally paying off, but nothing could prepare us for the curveballs that the restaurant business threw at us – shortage of staff, a theft, long and frequent power cuts, and don’t even get me started on the delays and multiple hoops one is forced to jump through to obtain licences, permissions, and clearances,” says Raymond.
“It sure is exhausting, but equally rewarding when customers make it a point to compliment the food and the quiet, rustic ambiance. We even have tourist friends who have now become regulars, and keep coming back every time they visit Goa,” laughs Daniel.