Food stalls are back on Frazer Town, but business lukewarm post pandemic

After a two-year gap, food shops have lined the streets of Shivajinagar, KR Market, Mosque Road, and MM Road to mark the Ramzan season.

Initial hiccups apart, restaurateurs have opened their stalls and are welcoming a steady stream of diners. Businesses on Mosque Road and MM Road on Frazer Town are still picking up as the two-year, pandemic-imposed break in business has dealt a severe blow to the restaurants in this stretch.

Traders are hopeful that crowds will pick up by next week.

“People coming to eat on MM Road also come to restaurants on this side,” said a worker at the New Taj restaurant on Mosque Road. “Without those stalls, the number of customers have reduced. We used to sell 500-600 samosas a day, but the numbers have come down to 200-300.”

The smell of food wafts through the air at Mosque Road.

Kheema, kebab, dahi mishti, kinafa, badam milk and other fast-moving items such as samosas filled with chicken, mutton, beef, and onion are still a hit. The evenings usually start with sparse crowd, but gather momentum after the prayer offering at the mosque.

Foodies throng the additional stalls put up by the restaurants. “It is only the third day. By the weekend, we are expecting huge crowds. We are confident that business will pick up in last 10 days. We are expecting bumper business,” said a stall owner at the Al Kareem Ramzan Food Mela counter.

Unruffled by the hijab, halal and Azaan issues in recent days, food lovers of all faiths are united on these roads.

“I do not care about the kind of meat. I come here with my friends every year to eat the samosas” said Pooja, who had come here on a food run.

No stalls, only counters

Thanks to opposition from the residents in the vicinity of Frazer Town and Mosque Road, stalls have not been erected on the road in large numbers as they used to earlier.

“Residents used to face a lot of disturbance due to the crowds gathering on these streets. That is why the residents objected to the stalls this time. All restaurants can put up their counters,” said Saud Dastaq of the Frazer Town Residents’ Welfare Association.

Traders hope that permission to erect extra stalls might be given in the last few days of Ramzan.

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