Inspiring Conversations with Rakesh Gadde of Socialfoods

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rakesh Gadde.

Hi Rakesh, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My journey in the USA started in 2005 with the support of my uncle who helped me move here from India. My uncle and aunty started Vasantha Bhavan, a South Indian delicacy in 2005 in Cerritos, CA as a family business. My first stint in the restaurant field started here, I worked part-time to help my uncle. Then I had to go back to India to finish my bachelors and came back again in 2009. This time I went back to my uncle’s restaurant and started working there full time and learned how to run a restaurant, manage resources, food preparation and logistics, as my initial steps in the restaurant business. From there I went to open almost seven branches. Right now we have Mandovi Indian Cuisine @ El Segundo, Pista House @Artesia, The Dosa spot @Artesia and Pista House @Sandiego. I am planning to open more branches of Pista House hot spots all over the USA in a couple of years and I am confident that I can do it.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Well, it was definitely not an easy path. I had to face a lot of challenges. I still remember, when we opened a restaurant in the Valley we didn’t have enough staff to run it, it was very hard to even find people to hire, so me and my friends, we used to cook and serve for almost a month but still it wasn’t making much profits so after an year we thought why don’t we open a pure vegetarian restaurant as there are no vegetarian restaurants in the area but that wasn’t successful either so we had to close it down. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed that nothing is working out but I had constant support from my family and friends who cheered me to come up with something fresh and catchy to the people, so this time I re-branded the name and opened it again with correct planning, staff and great taste and finally it was a huge success. I thank all my customers for constant support and my family & friends for being my pillars throughout.

We’ve been impressed with Socialfoods, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We specialize in a variety of biryanis, a rice dish very famous in India that’s cooked with many specially made Indian spices and meat such as chicken, goat, and lamb. We are the 1st restaurant in Los Angeles opened in 2011 severing over 10+ varieties of biryanis. We always thrive to offer variety and authentic taste to our customers without compromising on cost and quality. Artesia location is our main headquarters where we still run a very busy business. We have a biriyani named BEZAWADA biryani, this was my aunt’s special recipe and till now no one can replicate our authentic taste in this dish and we sell almost over 200 bezawada biriyanis every day. Apart from this our customers love Nizam, Double dhamaka and authentic Goat Dum biryanis. We are the only restaurant that sells famous Haleem throughout the year. For those who are food lovers and have never been to our place I invite you to just give it a try and I bet that you will come back again and again to us.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
In the next few years we are trying to open Pista House hot spots all over the USA, we will ship our famous dish spices from a centralized location to all the hot spots, eliminating the need for a physical restaurant, instead it will be like a pop-up which is more flexible and has greater reach. It’s a very new and unique expanding idea and I am confident it will be successful.

Pricing:

• 12-15

Contact Info:

• Email: pistahousela@gmail.com
• Website: www.pistahousela.com
• Instagram: pistahouse_la
• Facebook: @pistahousela