I had the privilege of traveling from Sristi Village, Tamil Nadu to Raipur, Chhattisgarh to learn from the team at Nukkad Café, an award-winning socially inclusive café that is devoted to various disadvantaged groups, including young adults with intellectual disabilities.
Nukkad’s founder, Priyank Patel is an engineering graduate-turned-social entrepreneur. Through a series of fellowships much like this one, Priyank gave up his well paid gig at a multinational company, and broke into the café business to serve some of society’s most marginalized. Eleven years later, he has not looked back.
The food Nukkad serves—fresh vegetable salads, colorful soups, refreshing shakes, quick chaats, and tasty pastas, to name just a few—can bring customers in with their taste alone. After watching college students order warm bowls of Maggi and a couple celebrating an anniversary over a spread of sizzling pan-Asian dishes, I wanted to try every item on the menu.
But what makes the café really stand out is their desire to never stop innovating, whether venturing into new cuisines (they piloted South Indian food just as we visited!) or creating an unique ambience. For example, one of their stores has a room devoted exclusively to women and leisure; photos of women sitting in expansive fields and chatting at crowded bars adorn the walls. Beyond offering representation, the space is used to argue that rest is necessary and restorative as opposed to wasteful and indulgent; that rest is not just the absence of work, but the presence of time for reflection or friendship; and, importantly, that even women who face great social oppression are deserving of this kind of leisure.
In each Nukkad, there is delicious food, and there is great service from different marginalized communities, but there is also a social experiment that involves the customer. I’m uncertain if Nukkad can even be called a café. It is part art gallery; part game room; part library; part performance theater. Priyank has a drive, curiosity, and imagination that pushes Nukkad to keep trying new things. Here are five lessons I learned from conversations with him:
- Focus on ability, not disability.
It is likely that Nukkad’s storefront in Samta Colony is the only café to employ exclusively deaf community members in the state. Yet, Priyank is clear that he does not want customers to flock to Nukkad to see people who are deaf, dwarfs, or those with Down Syndrome. Even if the charitable cause draws them there once, it is the quality of food, service, and ambience that allows Nukkad flourish in a competitive business market.
Priyank would never excuse a subpar sandwich or long wait time just because the restaurant employs a deaf person or someone with intellectual disabilities. He does not handhold or hover over trainees to ensure the work is done correctly. He expects, and cultivates excellence.
- Do not design poor solutions for the poor.
This expectation is mutual: just as Nukkad’s staff is expected to meet industry standards, the restaurant management must strive to provide them with competitive wages, benefits, and opportunities.
Priyank recounts a few of his trained employees left to work at Flipkart—an Indian multinational giant in online shopping—for the appealing pay; however, the work did not provide as much growth potential, and many wished to return. Initially, Nukkad’s team refused to hire them back, eager to establish a strict policy that would prevent future employees from reneging on their commitment. But soon after, Priyank decided that there is no harm in allowing his qualified employees to explore their options. While a two week notice is still required, he is open to employees quitting and returning.
He also has an open door policy for staff to bring him ideas, and encourages them to take on managerial roles outside of the kitchen and cashier’s counter.
- Your impact is defined by who you impact.
Rather than aiming to employ all 27 million people with disabilities in India, Priyank immediately shares that his hope is to inspire others to start ventures like Nukkad. He is happy to share Nukkad’s business model, and mentor others who want to enter the space. During our trip we watched Priyank help one of his mentees who opened a café serving the tribal community in Chhattisgarh a year ago; the café was struggling to balance serving tourists & locals equally so Priyank offered advice like taking the time to respond to every single review posted.
While admirable when an organization has national or international reach, I saw how Nukkad derives its strength from staying small. The staff is able to respond to each review, and works hard to understand Raipur’s local communities. In turn, people elect to host birthday parties, live music events, and community workshops at Nukkad time and time again.
- Commit to your vision and to your work.
When he opened the first branch of Nukkad, Priyank would cook dishes, clean tables, and cater to every nook and cranny of the business’s operations. Now, a talented team has taken over but he still has a good understanding of almost every element of the café production chain.
Priyank is not alone. I’ve noticed that many NGOs and other social ventures are highly person-driven, and require full-time commitment when established. The organizational environment & policies are a reflection of the individual in charge.
When one of his cafés, running 5 years strong, was demolished to make room for a multi-storey commercial complex that could bring in greater rent revenue, Priyank was devastated. But he chose to repurpose the bittersweet sadness to plan one final community gathering where he heard hundreds of testimonials from the people Nukkad had impacted. We read moving letters from many patrons who fondly recalled this goodbye.
- Know when to let go.
In this fellowship, we spend a lot of time discussing how the solutions we design must exist after we leave our locations. I saw how the same is true even for the most established founders like Priyank. While an organizational environment should reflect the values, attitudes, and behaviors of those in leadership positions, it should not require their constant presence.
Each of the four Nukkad branches we visited was designed differently: a cozy, colorful shop off the busy streets of central Raipur’s Samta colony; a romantic, restful storefront nestled in Bhilai; a sprawling, outdoors location with open lawn at a collaborative government storefront; and their most recent multilevel cafe with five themed rooms (including the women and leisure one) within it.
Nukkad is not simply a space to eat but a place where new artists can share their craft, busy professionals can work, and anyone can meditate in the food-free, device-free room filled with quotes, letters, posters, games, and more. Outside of its physical store, Nukkad even offers an online “Expresso,” or a digital platform for people to share experiences surrounding their marginalized identities.
Priyank shared that once he is unable to bring something new to Nukkad, he knows it will be time to move on and leave the cafes to the communities they aim to empower.
