Chef and restaurant operator Salil Mehta – founder of Fungi Hospitality Group, which includes grilled-meat specialists Kebab aur Sharab on the Upper West Side of Manhattan – has seen the wholesale price of a 40-pound bag of basmati rice climb to $45 from $30. Likewise, a 500-gram pack of chili powder that was $7 now costs him $10.50.<\/p>\n
Indian and Asian restaurants more broadly are particularly vulnerable to these cost increases, says Mehta, in part because they suffer from the stigma of being a \u201ccheap\u201d cuisine. \u201cPeople don\u2019t mind paying $35 for a cacio e pepe, for five ounces of pasta. But there\u2019s a different perception that [Indian] food should be cheap already,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
As a result, Mehta has had to raise prices at his restaurants. Entrees are about $5 more than they were pre-tariffs, and appetizers are \u201ca couple of dollars more here and there.\u201d But he says \u201cit still doesn\u2019t cover us, it means the margins are even lower than they were.\u201d Mehta is putting all his food costs under a microscope, he says. \u201cNow if the server drops the food at the wrong table, it\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Lungi, a South Indian and Sri Lankan dining room on the Upper East Side, chef-owner Albin Vincent is likewise feeling the pinch from the higher outlays for imported ingredients such as rice, lentils, and spices like ginger and garam masala. \u201cThese increased costs make it difficult for us to maintain profitability while keeping the menu prices low,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
So far, he\u2019s maintained the price of dosas at $20 to $26 and assorted biryanis at under $28, but it\u2019s getting hard. \u201cIf we raise prices to offset these costs, we also risk driving away customers who may already be sensitive to price increases,\u201d he says. \u201cThis creates a challenging situation where maintaining quality and authenticity becomes financially difficult.\u201d Vincent estimates that his costs on ingredients from India have gone up about 25%: \u201cCoconut milk, we were ordering for $38 per case and now are paying $48 per case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maneesh Goyal, owner of the elegant, year-old Passerine in the Flatiron district – one of the few Indian tasting menu restaurants in the city – is also trying to absorb the higher costs of imported ingredients. A bag of Arhar brand daal that was $62 pre-tariff is now $82, and a case of ghee costs $220, up from $150, a more than 46% rise. \u201cAs a new restaurant and an Indian restaurant, [we] haven\u2019t felt that we have the wherewithal to raise prices,\u201d he says. \u201cWe know the impact that it can have on covers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not every operator says they\u2019re being affected. Pavan Pardasani, the new chief executive officer of JKS Indian restaurants, is overseeing the opening of the group\u2019s first two US-based restaurants, Ambassadors Clubhouse in New York and Gymkhana in Las Vegas. \u201cRight now, we haven\u2019t been directly impacted,\u201d he says. But the tariff-related cost increases \u201cdo create disruption, and that\u2019s unfortunate for small business owners. It\u2019s a real thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chef Mohammad Tarique Khan of Hyderabadi Zaiqa, which has two locations in Manhattan, is watching prices rise. A 25-lb bag of basmati rice is $69, up from $45 , he says. \u201cRice is an important ingredient for us, because we\u2019re known for our biryani, but we don\u2019t have a lot of storage space to buy it in bulk.\u201d His menu features six varieties of lentils, which have risen in price to $4.50 per pound from $3. Still, he\u2019s resisted hiking prices. \u201cMost of our guests are students, office workers, and neighbors from the community, so we haven\u2019t raised our prices.\u201d To cut costs, he says, he\u2019s working late hours and \u201cnot hiring.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tariffs are also hurting the booming Indian snack market. Kartik Das is the founder of Queens, New York-based manufacturer Doosra is the founder of the Queens, NY-based brand that features which makes an addictive mix of boondi, or spiced chickpea puffs, and caramelized white or dark chocolate and nuts. Das, a veteran of UBS, says that beyond price, tariffs are affecting supplies: \u201cThe knock-on effect is of importers and exporters not wanting to bring in as much because of uncertainty around pricing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Das was sourcing boondi from India, but because the inventory was unpredictable, he\u2019s recently switched to a US-based supplier. The same problem applied to a key Doosra spice, the dried mango powder amchur. Because importers are afraid of getting stuck with overpriced products if the tariff rates change, \u201cthere was a downstream inventory shortage,\u201d he says. He\u2019s also looking for alternatives to his packaging manufacturer from India as well. So far, he hasn\u2019t raised prices.<\/p>\n
The repercussions reach beyond New York City. Keya Wingfield, the founder of the Richmond, Virginia-based Keya\u2019s Snacks – potato chips come in two bright flavors, Bombay Spice and Black Salt – is likewise challenged by supply and pricing. \u201cWe bring in single-origin spices from India, the tariffs have been astronomical,\u201d she says. \u201cThe spice company we work with in India has experienced a big loss of business, because their customers have put orders on hold.\u201d A month ago, \u201cwe had a 200 pound delivery of spices by air that had a $1,700 tariff freight fee. Before that those costs were negligible.\u201d The launch of a new flavor has also been complicated by the increase in costs. \u201cMoney we could have used for advertising, for delivery, has had to go to tariffs,\u201d she says, \u201cand there\u2019s no substitute for spices from India.\u201d<\/p>\n
All these compound the pressure on small businesses. \u201cOn top of that, the margins are getting slimmer,\u201d says Mehta. The market will always adjust, he says, but it\u2019s going to be the \u201csurvival of the fittest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chef and restaurant operator Salil Mehta – founder of Fungi Hospitality Group, which includes grilled-meat specialists Kebab aur…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7440,19796,289,8894,660,19798,10164,9,24,55,54,56,3419,1302,19799,19795,19794,19797],"class_list":["post-33014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-beijing","tag-china-east-asia","tag-food-drink","tag-food-and-drink","tag-horizontal","tag-indian-food","tag-lifestyles","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-photography","tag-restaurant","tag-thali-meal","tag-tray","tag-variation","tag-waiter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}