A new health-focused South Indian street food café has opened in West Cumbria.
Husband and wife duo Sachin Mishra, 47, and Shubha Sachin, 45, of Nethertown, who run Dosa Chaska, a popular authentic Indian food business, have officially opened the doors to their new café in Cockermouth.
The Dosa Chaska Café, at 46 Main Street, will serve vegetarian and non-ultra-processed Indian meals as well as healthy sweet treats and drinks.
Sachin said its Saturday opening was a huge success and saw dozens of people coming through the doors – prompting the café to stay open longer than expected.
He added: “The response was phenomenal, we had a lot of people who come and we had people say it’s one of the best new additions to Cockermouth.
“We opened the doors at 9.30am and we were supposed to close at 5pm, but we were still serving at 5.30pm and 6pm and we left at 8pm!
“So it was an enormous response and a constant flow of people. We’re quite pleased that we are able to create something new and unique here and we are so happy to see people enjoy what we’ve created. It’s also a beautiful location.”
ood served at the café includes dosas (crispy Indian pancakes topped with a variety of fillings), street chaats (Indian fritters) and other vegetarian meals including soup and dosa-style ‘sausage’ rolls.
Sweet treats including kulfi (ice cream), faluda (a cold decadent dessert drink) benne cookies and drinks like hot chai and mango lassi are also on offer.
Sachin said that the cafe’s menu is made up entirely of non-ultra-processed food, which forms part of their wider goal to disrupt the fast food industry.
People visiting the café can both sit in for food and take it away and the menu has been carefully put together by Shubha who is the founder and creative mind behind Dosa Chaska.
Creating a non-ultra-processed food menu and revamping the cafe presented some challenges along the way, but Sachin said the team were proud to have overcome them.
He added: “It was quite challenging as we wanted everything on the menu to be non-ultra-processed food.
“So we had to get rid of things like our Nutella dosa and replace it with a nice, non-ultra-processed hazelnut spread.
“Lots of ingredients on shelves in grocery stores like some vegan milks are not even truly coconut milk, only seven per cent is coconut and the rest is filler, so we’ve had to create some of our own things to sell too.
“Finding someone to do work here on the building too was difficult, but we are finding our way slowly and gradually and we’re learning.
“Having 50 varieties of food in a tiny café is also a challenge, you have to be very focused on your process and finding the right people to work with you and all of those things took time.
“We were lucky to get two fantastic individuals to work with us. It’s all basic small business problems that as you grow you’re able to add things and change and we are planning to change our menus every quarter.
“But we can now proudly say that we do not sell a single ultra-processed food and being able to fulfil that promise on our opening day was a very proud moment.
“The whole team is really proud to create some healthy options at a reasonable price.”
Sachin said that there were also a few bestsellers on their opening day.
He added: “On day one the bestseller was our masala dosa, the classic one is always the popular one but second best was a new edition, the tandoori paneer dosa, and we got very great sales from that.
“We have also created some very healthy vegetarian and vegan ice creams, which is known as kulfi in India, so these three were very popular as well as the chaats.
“People loved it and loved trying new things and when we asked how it was they said it was amazing.”
Sachin added that Dosa Chaska is also able to fully cater to and accommodate all dietary needs.
He said: “It’s one of our very core visions that we can serve everybody and that everybody has the right to enjoy dosa.
“It’s the best feeling being able to do that on opening day. You want desserts, we have desserts for you, you want snacks or mains and we have them too.
“People are not limited to one or two dishes, the whole menu is open to them.”
The cafe’s core team is made up of head chef and founder Shubha and new hire team members Millicent Hastings and Sneha Babar, who are both from Whitehaven.
Sachin said: “They get what we’re trying to do and they’ve learnt really fast, both of them are really good.
“They totally understand who we are and that we’re not just another café and that we have a vision of wellbeing and setting an example of good food.
“They’re fantastic individuals and we’re really proud of them.”
achin and Shubha initially started Dosa Chaska as a mobile food trailer where they appeared at different events across Cumbria and have continued to grow from strength to strength since.
Alongside the café and mobile food trailer, they also offer frozen curry subscriptions and at the start of this year they opened Indian Hub, by Dosa Chaska, in Whitehaven.
The hub is a space for cultural workshops, activities and community dining experiences and is also a central production kitchen and manufacturing hub. It will host its first cooking class experience in May.
It is being run by the duo under their community interest company Indian Global Village – a non-profit born from the pair’s passion to share culture and healthy authentic Indian food with West Cumbria.
Dosa Chaska is currently looking for someone able to volunteer some time to support its non-profit mission and offer advice as a director.
