Saravanaa Bhavan
Indian restaurant chain with franchises scattered across the globe
Saravanaa Bhavan, previously Hotel Saravana Bhavan, is an Indian restaurant chain based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The chain serves South Indian cuisine and operates 33 locations in India (24 in Chennai) and 92+ across 28 countries in North America, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Oceania.
History
In 1968, P. Rajagopal opened a tiny grocery shop in K. K. Nagar, on the outskirts of Chennai. In 1981, he opened his first restaurant, which initially operated at a huge loss. However, his restaurant quickly became both popular and profitable.
While visiting Singapore in 1992, Rajagopal observed the functioning of multinational fast food restaurants like McDonald's. He used them as a model for his restaurant chains.
By the 1990s, Saravanaa Bhavan had opened multiple restaurant locations throughout Chennai. In 2000, Saravanaa Bhavan opened its first branch outside India, in Dubai, a city with a large number of Indian expatriates.
Currently, Saravanaa Bhavan has multiple overseas locations which are run by franchisees.
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This entry incorporates text from “Saravanaa Bhavan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.