Like many restaurants that had to remain shuttered over the summer due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the famous Anand Dum Biryani in Hoskote, which serves hundreds of kilograms of mutton biryani early on Sundays mornings, also kept its doors closed. But since reopening, the biryani spot has seen both big crowds and new publicity in recent weeks.
On Sunday, Anand Dum Biryani had a 1.5 km line that stretched out of the eatery, leaving some hungry biryani lovers without a plate for themselves. Though Anand, the owner, doesn’t have exact numbers, he estimates a 20% increase in sales from earlier. Located about 25 kilometres from Bengaluru city centre, many start driving between 4.30 and 5 am to reach the eatery by 6 am to get in line for the day's servings.
“We had a big queue on Sunday, about 1-1.5 km for the token and in the end we couldn’t give parcels to everyone. We stopped parcels and ended up giving one plate to the last few people,” he told TNM.
The line outside Anand Dum Biryani on a recent Sunday morning
Anand Dum Biryani is no stranger to long lines, as many customers rise at the crack of dawn to drive from Bengaluru and other towns to their location. Several videos have documented the making of the famous biryani, most recently on Food Lovers TV, which released their video on September 10. The video, which has over 870K views, shows people queuing up just as the sun rises on a Friday morning to get their plate of the biryani. It has also made the eatery more popular.
“We generally used to have a good rush on Sundays before the lockdown. We stopped serving during the lockdown for five months and reopened only a month ago. We have a lot of people posting about our restaurant on YouTube,” Anand said.
Anand began making biryani several years ago, though his business earlier focussed on idlis and chitranna. While starting with only a few kilograms, they later expanded to making and selling hundreds of kilograms of biryani on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. They begin the cooking process in the wee hours in order to serve customers who start lining up around 6 am, and typically run out of food within a few hours.
However, social media posts show that there is little physical distancing between customers standing in line or sitting at tables eating the biryani.
The owner told Food Lover TV’s Kripal Amanna that they use only locally grown ingredients, while also rearing their own sheep for the mutton. The massive pot of biryani is cooked over a wood-fired flame before it is finished with a coal dum.
Bengalureans have been driving to the Hoskote spot for years for their early morning biryani breakfast, and as its popularity grows, it looks like they might have to start waking up even earlier than usual.
With inputs from Prajwal Bhat