Muted Easter in eateries of poll-bound Puducherry

PUDUCHERRY: With Easter on Sunday, restaurants in Puducherry are scrambling to find means to put an Easter special brunch on customers tables owing to the LPG shortage. The quaint White Town in the heart of the union territory is dotted with Instagrammable cafes that have traditionally served an Easter brunch to cater to the large Christian population and tourists who step out for a hearty meal on the celebratory day. But this year, traditional menus are being revisited and some brunches are been shelved completely.

John Peter, owner of Cafe Veloute said some of his signature dishes have been given a miss this Easter owing to the prevailing situation.

"We generally have an Easter menu ready weeks in advance but this time we are less than a day away and we are still figuring out the menu," he said. "I generally serve a Nalli rogan josh for Easter but we have removed it from the menu because it requires slow cooking and that is not feasible because of the LPG issue."


Some other restaurants, however, have had to scrap their Easter brunches entirely.

"This is the first time in 32 years that we have not had an Easter brunch at our restaurant," Valerie Mathias, owner of Rendezvous told ET. "Generally, we have a feast planned with special varieties of pork and duck and other traditional dishes but we only have one cylinder left now and don't know what we will do after that is finished."

Not just celebratory meals, menus at these establishments have been altered significantly to keep the lights on.

Mathias said Rendezvous has had to cut its menu by about 70% as most of the continental dishes they serve requiring slow cooking. Further, they have had to let go of three employees through this period and are operating with skeletal staff.

"The prices even in the black market are touching Rs 5000 for cylinders and that is not feasible," she said. "We are seriously considering if it is even worth keeping the restaurant running or to take a break during the summer and opening in June when the situation is hopefully better."

Others are conserving products to ensure they have enough to serve customers in their restaurants.

"We are making bread and pizza in a woodfire oven," Sujith Mechery, F&B executive at Bread & Chocolate said. "Especially with bread, we have cut down the loaves of bread that we bake from 150 per day to 60. We are also not selling bread in our bakery because we need that bread to run the restaurant... Our revenue is less because of the change in menu."

Not just cafés, even hotels are drawing up alternative menus. But it is day-to-day functioning has become a challenge for a number of smaller eateries in Puducherry. Many have shuttered their operations, others are wondering how to keep the lights on and still more question why the government is not being more proactive to address these concerns.

M Vicky who owns a roadside eatery called White Town Special purchased a Rs 20,000 stove for firewood to ensure he could tide over this period.

"For the last few weeks I have only been able to open my shop twice or thrice a week because of this issue," he said. "Everyone O approach has been saying that there is no availability of cylinders for commercial use. So I bought this stove for firewood and have increased the rates of all my items by around Rs 10."

Some shop owners said they were concerned that as soon as the elections take place next week, prices of LPG will go up and availability will become even more scared.

Restauranteurs also flagged that crowds were also less lately owing to the elections and areas being cordoned off due to roadshows and rallies by prominent politicians. Some even said that the directive of the government to shutter all establishments by 10pm was playing spoilsport as many eateries would generally remain open till late and depend on the large influx of tourists. Cafe Veloute's Peter said the fewer footfalls was another reason why he chose to drop serving roast turkey for his Easter brunch whil Rendezvous' Mathias said that many of her regulars who visit Puducherry at this time of the year have not come.

"I have many regulars who come for the Christmas and Easter meals at my restaurant," she said. "Pondicherry is special for Easter and has many visitors during this time because the church has midnight mass in three languages - Tamil, English and French. But the LPG issue coupled with the elections happening at this time have kept tourists away and really hit our business."