JOIN USAt a small hotel, near the Corporation circle in Bengaluru, you may have seen people standing in a long queue waiting for their breakfast. The hotel, which works out of a home, does not have signboard. But go to Sampangiram Nagar and ask anyone, they will tell you where it is.
Siddappa hotel, as it is fondly called, is named after the owner a weaver, who became a hotelier. The menu is limited and it is the soft idlis and the crispy masala doses, which are the main draw here.
The hotel may be small and popular but it comes with its own quirks. It opens for only three hours in the morning between 8 to 11. It serves food only on banana leaves and paper. Customers, who prefer plates are told to bring their own, and many actually do so.
On Sundays and Thursdays the hotel is so crowded you can order only half a masala dose. That is, the hotel makes a dose, cuts it into two parts and serves to different customers. You want more, wait for your turn again.
For the old customers, these idiosyncrasies add to the charm of the Siddappa Hotel. As you enter it, you see the man himself at the makeshift cash counter. You may also come across Ranagmma who keeps an iron grip over the kitchen and the recipe which makes its food so delicious.
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