Sathya Sundaraneedi, is an accidental restaurant owner.  â€œIt all began with my passion for food and my inclination to help people in need. I had offered some help to a friend to start the Udipi restaurant in Nashua NH. It ran into some trouble and he asked that I take over the restaurant and that is how I became a restaurant owner,” says Sathya. 

A electronics engineer by training, Sathya came to the US to work in the industry. “For several years I was Director of Data Warehouse at Aspen Tech. My wife is a dentist and we love to travel. We have traveled to 26 countries. Finally when we came to Boston, my wife decided to get a Dental degree from BU. That tied us to Boston area and the rest is history” 

“For me the restaurant business is not about making money. Since I have other income generation opportunity I really focus on making the restaurant a place where we bring fresh good food. We always purchase our ingredients fresh every morning. All our spices are freshly ground. At the Udipi restaurant, since it was vegetarian restaurant, we did not ever use cold storage.  At Chettinad, we have meat, which needs cold storage. When we run out of our produce for the day we do not offer that dish for the day”

So are the restaurants profitable? What is the secret of success? “Absolutely.  I believe in use of technology and streamlining of processes.  If we use data effectively we can cut waste and streamline processes. Many restaurants fail because they do not do this effectively. “

Staff turnaround is a huge issue in the restaurant business. How does he manage that? 

“We treat staff as equal partners in our restaurant.  We are a team and we maintain complete transparency. Since we are a team, we all work together to make the restaurant successful.  We all help each other. There are times I may do things like dishwashing.  I think the team spirit and transparency of operations  has helped us  have a staff that is energized ad does not want to leave” 

After your accidental ownership of Udipi, what motivated you to own another restaurant? 

“The Chef, Bala who is my dear friend is  passionate about Chettinad cuisine. When Bombay Club decided to close their operations, I thought it would be a good place for Bala to create his Chettinad cuisine restaurant. We are delighted that we now have such a restaurant.  He brings his culinary talent and vision and I bring my operations skill and together we are delighted to see the success. “

“My vision is to make Indian restaurant experience in the Boston area a good experience. Taking a Indian restaurant and making it sustainable is a passion of mine. If other opportunities come my way I shall most certainly seize it”

You have such good insights into successful running of restaurants. Would you consider opening an Indian restaurateur association to share your knowledge? 

I tried to do that without much success. I am always available to help restaurateurs. Some have taken my help to turnaround their restaurant. Unfortunately sometimes restaurants look at each other as competition. I believe in collaboration and feel if we come together we can surely help each other.”

What are future goals for Chettinad? 

“We are planning to have home food service. We have started it in a small way already. But we would like to deliver fresh food to busy people.”

“Charitable causes always touch my heart. I support education ad many other causes. We donate food to causes at a very nominal cost to help raise funds. “

“These restaurants are really about the people who run it and our customers. It is not about me.  I cannot say enough about my fabulous team.  I am excited about our team and about our fabulous customers. My sincere thanks to both to make this a great experience for me”