Three partners, Pavithraa, Dhiren, and Siddharth, fueled their passion for the culinary industry and started a cloud kitchen in Coimbatore.
After several hits and misses, the trio joined hands with Vignesh to bring their passion project to Chennai. Located at the youngsters and art enthusiasts’ favourite AF Madras in Nungambakkam, Van Dough Cafe and Pizzeria is the recent addition to Chennai’s cafe scene.
With both outdoor and indoor seating, the cafe takes the diners close to nature, savouring the best quick bites and sipping the in-house fizzy cola beverage.
One of the partners, Dhiren, says, “Ours is a transformative journey from Coimbatore to Chennai, and cloud kitchen to cafe. Chennai has quite an elaborate culinary scene. We also have our seating at La Maison library, where guests can enjoy the food in a calm ambience, flipping through the pages of their favourite book.”
When asked why the name Van Dough, Vignesh shares, “We wanted a name that reflects our artisanal pizzas. Even our ambience and cutlery are quite artistic.” The team brainstormed with different ideas to give a regional touch to the dishes. “Instead of sun-dried tomatoes, we use naatu thakkali as pizza sauce. For toppings, we opt for pichchu potta kozhi varuval and Mangalore ghee roast on pizzas,” he adds.
Talking about how youngsters enter the field, seeing just the positives, Vignesh notes, “The competition in Chennai is strong. There is a lot of glamour associated with the culinary field, and people think it is easy to earn a living. However, they have to watch out for the failure probability also. In my opinion, a balanced team is the foundation.
One to handle the kitchen, one for business and one to strategically handle the digital presence. Only passion and strong ground research help.”
The team is working to introduce a new brunch and beverage menu, and also improve the existing menu to offer the best. Among all their dishes, the special hot chocolate with a touch of nutmeg and cinnamon stands tall for hitting the right note. The thick consistency and creamy texture push us to repeat the order. In the small plates, the crispy fried oyster mushrooms paired with spicy honey dip is a must-try. To try something new, go for the sugarcane chicken. Though the taste is great with dip, the flavour of ginger is quite overpowering.
From their elaborate pasta menu, butter sage gnocchi gets a ten-on-ten for the flavours packed with the potato-based pasta. We also enjoy their fizzy cherry cola, made with homemade cola, cherry compote and grapefruit ale.
The sweetness in the Neapolitan French onion pizza and the spiciness of the Kundapuri ghee roast chicken pizza offer both international and local flavours in a single plate.