Bengaluru, 24 March (H.S.): Bengaluru has a history of the finest South Indian cuisines. Each zone has it’s own top destinations. Hotel Dwaraka in Bengaluru South is one of them. It has retained the look of a heritage hotel to this day. Old-style stone table tops, simple interiors, wooden benches form part of the Infrastructure.
The standard menu of Idli sambar, Vada, Masala Dosa , Poori Saagu, Khara bath, Coffee and Tea are popular items on the menu of fifty-two-year-old Hotel Dwaraka. Khali Dosa remains to be the USP of this legendary, heritage hotel.
It all started in the year 1972. Sridhar Holla was the founder of this hotel.
He was originally from Sholapur in Maharashtra. Post independence he moved to Bangalore subsequently, he joined his brother who was running a hotel in Majestic.
After having learnt the trade he decided to branch out to a new venture inder the brand name Dwaraka on Bull Temple Road in 1972
Hotel Dwaraka became a roraing success over the years. The hotel was so famous that the earst while Editor of Kannada Prabha late YN Krishna Murthy YNK recommended many of his illustrious friends and colleagues to Hotel Dwaraka. He didn’t miss an opportunity to mention the top quality of Hotel Dwaraka in his conversations. And YNK ‘s opinion was the ultimate word as an influencer not only to the readers but also to rich and famous personalities in Bengaluru.
Around the turn of the millennium, Dwarka Hotel was shifted to Chamarajapet, the present premises. It was its three-floor building. The ground floor was for the hotel, first and second floor served as accommodation for the staff.
I was an SBM employee at the time of connecting with Holla, my father-in-law, in the trade. I learnt tricks of the trade during my initial years, says Krishnamurthy Ithal, who has been leading the team at Dwaraka. Around 1989 I resigned my stable job at SBM and took over the reign of the business.
Our customer base grew by leaps and we have celebrities like the Late Puneeth Rajkumar, International Cricketers Venkatesh Prasad, and pace bowlers Jawagal Srinath, frequenting our hotel.
Though we have been advised to give a corporate look to our hotel, we were very sure that Hotel Dwaraka would remain a heritage hotel in its outlook and interiors, he explains.
We have retained the flavour of each dish with high-class inputs. Amongst all the dishes we offer, Khali Dosa, remains to be our top-selling item. Sridhar Holla is credited as the founder of the recipe of Khali Dosa in the culinary dictionary of Karnataka. And till day we are able to live up to the reputation.
In this millennial world, we have offers for merger or acquisition but we have desisted from all the lure of trade and commerce.
In business profits and losses matter in the initial years. But today we have reached a state of life beyond profits and losses. And we as a team are committed to serving customers to the best of our ability.
And live our legacy each moment , says Krishnamurthy Ithal in conclusion.
Well going by the thronging of customers one has to agree with the team at Hotel Dwaraka.
Hindusthan Samachar / Manjunath Chavan
