Tulsi on Cuba Street was Monty Patel’s flagship enterprise. So when its doors closed for good on March 31, it left a void in his life. “It’s like a daughter leaving the house and moving to her in-laws after marriage,” he says, touching his chest.
For 23 years Tulsi served up North Indian specialities such as Naan and butter chicken to an appreciative clientele, who always came back.
Few people know that before it was named after the popular herb traditionally grown in every Indian household, the restaurant was called Naan.
But a cocktail of factors, from the Covid pandemic and spiralling commodity prices to rising rentals, staff shortage and the anti-vaccine mandate protest on the Parliament grounds, left the hospitality industry reeling, resulting in a spate of business closures in Central Wellington.
With the closure of Tulsi in the CBD, Patel is now left with two branches of the same name in Petone and Miramar, and a third restaurant, Masala, located off Courtney Place in Central Wellington.
Patel also has a factory in Rongotai that was set up some years ago with ambitious plans of rolling out pies for global export, but whose operations have since been scaled back.
Unlike many of his Kiwi Indian industry peers, Patel’s is not a family-run business. “There is only my wife and I, and she doesn’t work,” he points out.
Patel’s hands-on approach means that he is behind the cash counter while also overseeing orders on the restaurant floor.
He is particular about achieving the right ambience in his restaurants and swears by three catchwords - “quality, quantity and environs” - which he believes go to the core of the restaurant business.
“ A dish may be delicious but if there’s not enough of it on the plate, the customer is left dissatisfied,” he observes, adding: “And it’s equally important for a restaurant to have an elegant feel-good interior.”
But maintaining high standards is not always easy. The border closure during the last two years meant that staff could not be hired from overseas. This has resulted in an acute shortage of cuisine-specific, specialist chefs.
While Patel agrees the pandemic has impacted the hospitality industry, he admits that Covid is often used as a handy alibi to overcharge customers or raise overhead costs. Patel claims he resists such unfair business practices.
The closure of Tulsi on Cuba St is a setback. But Patel is determined to soldier on in an industry that is yet to see light at the end of the tunnel.