Featured By Stay Featured: Flavours Street
Well, where to start with this…. Okay, let's start from the beginning…
The journey of Flavour Street started with Alfred's arrival in Pune in 1997. The idea of serving delicious and authentic sandwiches came to Alfred at a very young age. But coming from a humble background and lacking financial support, he started his journey as a roadside hawker in Koregaon Park. Alfred was a confident young boy who was fortunate enough to learn his culinary skills from the best continental chefs of 5-star hotels in Goa, where he did miscellaneous jobs to make his living. He was sure if he used his much-appreciated culinary skills to work, people would love his sandwiches as there was a dearth of authentic sandwiches back then. (Read Alfred’s story in the next frame to know more about his journey).
Alfred started his journey with a thela gaadi in 1998 at Koregaon Park. Flavour Street started with a humble menu of just three to four options of sandwiches but they were made to perfection. Soon the word spread around and we were having too many people to even handle. Some famous personalities like Kader Khan, Poonawala, Baba Kalyani, and Venky’s among others stopped by to have our sandwiches. At that point, Alfred sold 500 sandwiches a day. Looking back they were golden times which Alfred recalls fondly.
So famous were Flavour Street sandwiches back then that the road usually got jammed by the crowd waiting in front of the stall. This soon became a concern for the ever-growing Koregaon Park’s developing area. So, authorities started pressuring us to move from there. We were disappointed and worried about what would lie ahead for Flavours. In this brief time, Alfred worked in the kitchen of one of the prominent hotels in Pune. But his heart was stuck in restarting Flavours.
Gangadham :
Like a god-sent saviour, a customer who loved our sandwiches offered a place at Gangadham which was our first outlet with a proper setting opened in 2004. It remains one of the pillars of Flavours Street to this day. Many customers in the area loved our vegetarian-friendly food and made huge party orders. Flavours Street has been a magnificent success in Gangadham and being the first proper outlet, it holds a special place in our hearts.
FC Road :
On popular demand and insistence from numerous customers that we should open at FC road, we went ahead and started Flavours Street at FC road in the year 2005. Although we almost immediately received the same love and appreciation from customers, we had to go through adversities for various reasons. At one point, Flavours Street’s outlet was damaged overnight by some miscreants, But the perseverance Alfred has developed over his struggling years came to his aid to continue Flavour
Street at all costs. Ultimately, FC road Flavours is our best branch today. We get compliments for our quality from new customers every day which fills our hearts with satisfaction.
NIBM
Although the pandemic was hitting hard on all restaurants, one thing about Flavour street is that customers are our biggest motivators and supporters in starting new ventures. One such customer was so much in love with Flavour’s food, that she insisted on starting a new outlet. Although we were hesitant initially, we went ahead anyway and it worked out beautifully. We are glad we opened Flavours in NIBM in 2021. We received a lot of love from customers here too. Now we are working on developing the outlet further. Make sure you visit us in NIBM.
Aundh
We are here with a new fine dining outlet again. We start at Aundh in April 2022. We hope that Aundh would be bestowed with the same love and support as other branches.
As you got a clue already Alfred learnt his culinary skills from the best continental chefs. He makes sure that he teaches the same skills to each chef working at Flavours. Even though we started with a humble menu size back then, we take pride in saying that we have more than 80 dishes at present on our menu. We also added some exciting pastas, pizzas and fresh fruit juices. We expanded our menu by innovating over time. Each item that you see on the menu is curated by our best chefs. We can proudly say that we are the pioneers in introducing many dishes in Pune like Chocolate Toast, Jamun shots, Mumbai Masala Toast, Pahadi Grill Sandwiches and many other delicacies.
We not only have authentic flavours in our sandwiches, pasta, and pizzas but also we have mixed up some recipes to satiate the Indian palette. For example, the Pahadi sandwich which is one of the most famous sandwiches of Flavours is made from a recipe of meticulously picked and rare ingredients, such as original Kashmiri chillies used for making the red chutney. Customers often say that some of our sandwiches taste like Continental food mixed with Mom’s recipes.
Still to this day, we produce all our main recipes and materials in a central kitchen to maintain quality and uniformity at all our branches. We can proudly say that we put our efforts into the kitchen to serve the best quality to our customers. If you would ask, Mr Alfred would endlessly boast of how and where he acquires the freshest and premium quality ingredients for his food items from various special vendors for each ingredient.
But to be honest, that is something really to be proud of. He even plans to grow organic vegetables and fruits for his food joints.
We are one of the most concerned people for our customers. Flavour Street provides only fresh juices and natural drinks in place of carbonated sugary drinks as they affect health drastically. We make sure that we use the freshest ingredients which we stock every day and cook food in the healthiest way possible. Such is the attention to detail at Flavours Street that the bread which is used is freshly made and grilled at a peculiar temperature to reduce the yeast levels to ease your digestion after having our tasty sandwiches. Okay! We will not bore you with any more details of cooking. Point is, you can enjoy our food while we take care of your health here. Not only that, we are planning to launch an entire segment of dishes for healthy foods in our menu for health-conscious people. We are working on innovating new dishes to balance our taste and health. Consider it coming soon!!
Perseverant, passionate, committed and Hardworking are the adjectives which would describe Alfred as a person if you look at his journey as a founder of Flavour Street.
Alfred has always believed in providing his tasty food at reasonable prices because serving food for him is not just a business but something that he loves to do. He is so passionate about food that he does not trust anyone else to make the main recipes and he spends most of his day in the kitchen. His quality of being a people person along with his remarkable food service urged his customers to suggest him new places. That is how he came up with Gangadham, FC Road, and NIBM branches across Pune. The attention and love he gained from his customers worked as an impetus for him. Alfred is not very much of a business-minded person rather he relies on the utility quotient.
Although his initial goal was limited to creating a sandwich brand, with a wide variety of sandwiches, he succeeded in creating that diversity in his carte soon enough. So he ventured into adding more delicious options of pasta and pizzas to his menu.
Flavours Street has been very integral in Alfred’s life to an extent that he found the love of his life, Almas. When asked about Alfred, Almas fondly says, “Alfred’s personalities in both professional and personal life are the same. I have seen very few people who have found a passion for a thing and I am married to someone who gives me a chance to have a glimpse of it every day. He surprises me with his experience and so many new ideas he has about Flavours Street! He has been through so much struggle but he has never thought of giving up. He never stops, he wants to improve as a person every day, and that exactly gets reflected in his business as well. He is an absolute giver”.
They got married in 2011 and have a little girl named Myraah. Almas has supported Alfred on his journey and has helped him understand the business in a more professional setup. She now looks over some specific parts of the business. Alfred has also adopted a street dog named Tuffy. This cute little family with a dog looks like a fairytale and they say they are the happiest people ever with each other.
Although he had to struggle all his life, Alfred has only grown even more empathetic and has plans to do more for the people and animals than he already does. He takes good care of his employees. He understands the pain of hunger and struggles as he has seen-it-all in his struggling days. He doesn't want anyone to go through such pain.
Every Tuesday, Alfred feeds the destitute people outside St. Anthony’s Shrine and has worked to provide food to people during the Sangli Flood, Kolhapur Flood and Pandemic, recently. Alfred is also known for rehabilitating homeless people on the roadside with some hygiene makeovers, clothes and food. Even in his struggling days when he was not financially firm, he donated 70% of his income to Church. He makes various donations to old-age homes, orphanages and institutions for the deaf and dumb. He is truly a person with a Big heart!
He has some bigger philanthropic plans in the future. He envisions building a farmhouse for old people who have been abandoned by their family members, and a home shelter for stray dogs. He wants to continue feeding a larger number of deprived people. Let's hope he succeeds in his goals of doing so.
Of course, to execute such plans he will need more finances, so he has a vision for Flavour Street’s presence across the nation. He is working on establishing Quick Service Restaurants, Cafe and fine Dining models of Flavour Street.
Alfred’s favourite quote of all time is, “Have faith in yourself and work hard, you will never fail.” Even in his struggling days, he believed, `Koi kaam chota-bada nahi Hota, kaam, kaam ee hota hai.”
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