Karpagambal Mess Mylapore 70 years

This year the popular Karpagambal Mess on East Mada Street, Mylapore is completing 70 years. Despite a number of restaurants that have come up over the last decade on the Mada Streets, Karpagambal Mess, started in 1953, has been able to hold its own and expand both the size of the facility as well as the variety of its offering.

Third Generation owner Prabhu Das is now 45 and has already been managing the business and serving the customer for three decades having taking over from his appa, Soundararajan, when he was just 15. He recounts to this writer sitting on the North Prakara of the Kapaleeswarar temple that phase when he had to make a big call regarding his future “I had completed Class X and my appa asked me about my academics. Even as a young boy studying for the exams, my ears were always ringing of the ‘nei dosai’ call and I could smell the badam halwa being served. There were no thoughts and I quit academics at 15 to join my appa in the early 1990s and my entire life has ever since revolved around serving customers.”

Prabhu Das’s grandfather Ramadas Iyer hailed from near Vaitheeswaran Koil and had moved to Madras as part of the freedom movement. In Mylapore, he found that there was a need for traditional food served in a traditional way and launched Karpagambal Mess in 1953 under a thatched roof “Eight families lived here and there was just space enough for people to stand and eat. My patti Pattamal doubled up as the cook at the Mess while my thatha took care of the customer service on the plantain leaf.”

While the family’s kula deivam was Vaitheeswaran swamy, Ramadas Iyer had become very devotionally attached to Karpagambal in the early years of his stay in Mylapore and this devotion remained so till the final moments of his life. And he hence he named the mess after the Ambal of Mylapore. He had great respect for the priests of Kapaleeswarar temple and he felt it a great blessing to be serving them.

In his final days, Ramadas Iyer passed on an important message to his son “I have named the Mess after Karpagambal and any unhappiness to customers would make Ambal unhappy. Hence, that every single customer has a happy experience. That is the only way we can go to be bed every night in peace.”

That has remained at the core of the business since its launch seven decades ago, says Prabhu Das.

For two decades, Ramadas Iyer managed all by himself before Soundararajan took over in the early 1970s. A decade later he bought out the building. From ‘standing’ customers, he provided for 18seats much to the delight of the customers. When he took over, the founder told him that the customers that day could comprise of a pregnant lady or a patient who was returning from the hospital after a fortnight wanting to taste the Badam Halwa or it could be a child’s first idly. ‘We need to provide each of them with an everlasting experience” was appa’s message to me.

Prabhu Das is proud to be the first Mess to launch an AC hall as early as 1994. It was also he who went in for a massive renovation of the restaurant bringing down the old building and expanding the Mess by more than doubling its size to 1700sq. ft with the seating capacity increasing to 60. While his grandfather and patti managed it all by themselves, his appa engaged just under 10 staffers. During his time, this has increased to 20.

Into his late teens, Prabhu Das began riding TVS Champ to Parrys at 4am every morning to purchase the vegetables for the day and this was been a daily routine he followed for years. It was a great early experience for him to learn the art of buying the ingredients each day of the year and to negotiating with the suppliers.

At the turn of the century, there was a shift in lifestyle and eating habits. The traditional food was becoming history. Prabhu Das wanted to revive this and over the last decade he has been slowly bringing back traditional food on his menu. While the tiffen items (Ghee Pongal, Idly, Dosai) in the morning and evening (Bonda/ Bhajji) and variety rice offerings are part of the daily menu, Thengai Boli, Sojji Appam, Venthaya Dosai, Mudakkathan Keerai Dosai (good for knee bone issues) are turning big hits and there is now a fan club for these. He is now exploring offering Milagu Jeeragam Rasam as part of the health food package. 

Badam Halwa and Cashew nut cake continue to be a hot favourite with the customers while Podi Onion Oothappam is youngsters’ favourite pick these days.

While for several decades, the customer bills were written on the slate, Prabhu Das’s two daughters, Aishwarya and Soundarya, are bringing in the technology changes into the accounting process. Computerised billing has been introduced in recent years.

Prabhu Das says that the handing over of the baton to the next gen happened on its own and was not thrust on anyone. He is delighted with the fact that his two daughters have been actively involved in some of the processes at the Mess. He cites the example of this year’s Panguni Utsavam when the two of them were in complete charge through the ten days including managing the kitchen and the cash counter. He is hoping that someday in the near future they would take over from him and carry on this tradition of serving high quality traditional food to the Mylaporeans.

Ever since his childhood he has been an ardent devotee of the Divine Couple. Soon after his wedding, his wife, Malathi, began the process of presenting flowers to Kapaleeswarar and Karpagambal on street processions during the Panguni Utsavam. Almost quite unexpectedly this process led to him being devotionally involved with the presentation of the flower garlands during the Panguni Utsavam, something that he has carried out over the last 25 years. 

On the Rishabha Vahanam night this year, just after the shop had closed for the night, a young man came to Prabhu Das with a special request at 11pm. Prabhu recounts one of the most memorable moments of his life “He told me that he was born after his appa had got a badam halwa from here and presented to his amma while she was getting into labour. It is a very sentimental occasion for me and I too want to present a Badam Halwa to my wife as she heads to the hospital tonight. I went up immediately and handed the halwa. A couple of days later he came back to inform that they had been blessed with a boy child.”

The two years of the Pandemic was a big setback. He took bank loans to pay salaries to his staff. With the temple shut, 90% of the business had gone away in that phase. But what surprised him was the way his 20 employees supported him. “I was taken aback by the way they stood with me in the tough times and how they were back sharp every morning once we opened after the initial phase of Wave 1. They have been a great source of strength to me."

It has been a swift bounce back for Karpagambal Mess over the last one year with the loyal customers coming back and the restaurant serving to a packed audience during this Panguni Utsavam. The Mess now is also beginning to attract the younger generation in large numbers. 

Even as Karpagambal Mess completes seven decades and moves into the next phase of growth, lucrative offers are continuing to come his way to open branches outside of Mylapore. Prabhu Das has resisted the temptation for he just one thing in mind. He says that he owes his entire business to the devotees of the Kapali temple as he sees a big spike in customers at his Mess on the big processional days and during the utsavams “I have to continue to safeguard the brand name of Karpagambal. A brand has been built over 70 years and we have come to be known for our quality offering. Those two are our biggest success factors and all my focus would be on ensuring that the brand name is protected by continuing to provide quality food and seeing the happy faces amongst our customers.”

Someday in the future, one or both his daughters could take over the reigns from Prabhu Das. For now, he is clear that there is no ‘going away’ from Karpagambal and the joy for him will continue to come from serving the devotee customers with quality food after their darshan at Kapaleeswarar temple.