Introductions

Let me start with some introductions. 'Nirmal' is an Indian restaurant located in Ypsilanti, MI almost equidistant from 2 famous universities in MI - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Eastern Michigan University (EMU), Ypsilanti. We started in Oct 2009 after taking over an exiting Indian restaurant named 'Temptations' with a big dream ~ to make the first Indian food chain in the world. We have food chains for all types of cuisine from Chinese to Mexican to Italian but not Indian. Not even in India. Some may argue we have some brands now in India with 40-50 restaurants but compare this with Panda express (1200 stores) or Chipotle (6000 stores) in the US or even 600 stores for Domino's Pizza in India. Incidentally 'Temptations' is located just 4-5 blocks down the first Domino's Pizza store in Ypsilanti, MI which started way back in 1969.

Another coincidence ~this whole thing started brewing during my project work in 2007 at Domino's HQ in Ann Arbor, MI. I was pursuing MBA at Ross School of Business at University of Michigan and I have had MAP project at Domino's, a famous component of Ross MBA program. While visiting Domino's stores to see their operations and accompanying drivers to deliver pizzas to the customers, I got fascinated by Domino's history. Starting with a store near EMU, in 40 years, Domino's has 8000 stores. At this point I was just wondering why us Indians don't have a food chain?

Can history repeat itself with all the coincidences?