BENGALURU: There’s a sombre hue cast over Samrat Restaurant, one of Bengaluru’s iconic eateries, on Sunday. The place is as busy as ever. No sign of an empty table and lots of people standing outside either sipping coffee or having dosa. But if you’ve been to this place in the past, you would have noticed that even though the place is just as busy, there’s a solemn sadness in the atmosphere.
As if everyone is donning sepia-toned glasses and nostalgia is the most ordered emotion from the menu. This day marks the final day of this restaurant hosting their business and customers in the Chalukya Hotel, which has been home to the eatery for multiple decades.
“It is a sad day. This place has been here for many years and is a landmark in the area. In all my years of working, I never knew how time flew so quickly here, but it always did,” says Bhaskar Shetty, the store manager who has worked at the restaurant since 1997. People from all walks of life can be seen having food at Samrat.
From old-timers who have been frequenting this place for the past 40 years to children who only started here a few years ago. “I have been coming here since my bachelorhood days. Now, my family and I come here every Sunday and have the badam halwa and the dosa, which is a must. With a heavy heart, I can say that I’m going to miss this place very much. I still remember driving my scooter here in my younger days,” shares Vishwanath V Katti, who has been a customer of Samrat since the early 1980s.
While Katti is a veteran customer, Prakya Meh started coming to Samrat in 2010. In fact, she dragged her friend from Chennai to the eatery on Sunday just to try the dosa.
“The best thing about any dosa in Karnataka is that they add the red chutney. That is missing in other places and states. What I like about the dosa at Samrat specifically, is that they add the red chutney into the batter. So the dosa is reddish-orange. This gives so much flavour to it that you can have it without any accompaniments, even though they are also provided,” says Meh.
This place has seen people of importance visiting frequently, from movie celebrities to politicians. Legendary Kannada actor Dr Rajkumar was famous for getting his entire family here. Gracy, the restaurant’s customer relationship manager, believes this makes the restaurant a difficult but great place of work.
“The work environment here is a little stressful mostly because of the varying degrees of customers we get. The atmosphere is completely different from when we are serving only families one day to when we are serving politicians or celebrities the next day. This job is not for the faint of heart,” says Gracy who has worked here for over 15 years.
For now, Samrat is being relocated to Vasanth Nagar in a smaller area, which will be known as Mini Samrat. The entire staff won’t relocate to the new place with some going ahead to do some different projects. But discussions have been going on to eventually open a bigger place soon, where the entire crew will be reunited. Outside of its dosae and badam halwa, the place is also known for its rava idli and the white rice rasam sambar meal.