Only two weeks old and Fresh Pottalam has already opened four outlets in prominent areas of the city — T Nagar, DLF Ramapuram, Velachery and Arumbakkam. All in their late 20s, siblings Vashisht and Karan Dhupad have teamed up with their cousins Dheeraj and Kanishk Dhupad to create an energetic team with big plans for the brand. Interestingly, this Punjabi family had no second thoughts when they had to choose the cuisine for their venture — it was unanimously South Indian. The 26-year-old Vashisht recalls his college days, and says, “I was not in Chennai for a span of five years and when I got back, the local food that I once loved did not taste the same and I realised that the prices had also gone up. This pushed me to start my own food joint.”
Everything about this place, from the interiors to the recipes, have been personally curated by the team. For instance, the quirky South-Indian menu was prepared by Kanishk, the Koyambedu market-themed photographs were clicked by Dheeraj and the white and purple colour scheme and other interior works of the 20-seater place were planned by Karan, and Vashisht takes care of business. “We have also received inputs for some dishes from my father and uncle and one of our specialties, Kanmani chicken, is actually my mother’s recipe,” he adds.
The restaurant has a simple menu with 30 dishes picked from parts of the state for lunch and dinner with a delivery and take away option. They serve variety rice like Thiruvarur sambar sadham, Vemboos vathakuzhambu that are usually the staple of any tamil household. “It took two months for us to decide the variety rice that we would be using out of the 35 different ones we tried,” he adds. On the other side, while surfing through the reviews on social media, we find that their chicken biryani is one of their popular dishes. However, the parotta and chicken combo seems to be a much sought-after take-away option among college and office-goers. Two more outlets are expected to be opened at Kelly’s and Velachery.
`250 for two. Details: 30853873