Korea's cafe culture thriving in India

Couple opens fifth brunch lounge in as many years in the streets of Pune

By Lee Ji-hye

A hip, stylish brunch cafe tucked in a back alley in bustling Pune is home to many Indian youths as a cool hangout spot ㅡ quite different from local restaurants thick with the smell of spices, and speakers blasting out Bollywood music.

About 100 kilometers from the populous harbor city of Mumbai, Pune's Cafe Peter Donuts is owned by a devout Christian couple who are living their Korean dreams in the heart of India.

Having worked in Korea's fashion industry for almost 10 years, Jung Chan-seok, 45, and his wife Min No-yi, thought it would be a good idea to look to the Indian market while everyone else was looking to China in the early 2000s.

Starting a trendy brunch lounge five years ago has indeed proved a blue ocean for the couple. Cafe Peter Donuts has now become a franchise, with five stores in the area.

"It was simple ㅡ as much as we enjoyed eating and hanging out in trendy cafes in Korea, we knew that there would someday be a high demand in India," Jung said.

Visitors have praised the cafe's cream-filled and chocolate ganache-filled donuts as the main delights that keep the customers coming, especially the custard-filled doughnuts.

"It's an egg-yolk yellow and slightly tart custard, which does not ooze out as expected, but lightly flavors the bun," the Mumbai Mirror newspaper reported.

The co-founder of the Korean franchise in India talked to the Korea Times to discuss the family's sweet success in the land of spices.

Cafe Peter Doughnuts started out as a hub for Korean residents, but soon developed into a hangout for young Indians / Courtesy of Cafe Peter Doughnuts

Q: What do you feel is the biggest reason behind your popularity with Indian customers?

A: In Korea, there's free WIFI in almost every cafe. But in Pune you have to purchase a coupon to use the Internet. We were the first cafe in the area to provide free Internet, which seems to attract a lot of the youngsters ㅡ our cafe targets mostly the 30 percent upper class. We are used to distributing luxury items in Korea, so we can say that we had some experience with a similar market approach ㅡ we were well aware of its strengths and weaknesses. What is different about targeting customers for a cafe, however, is that we aim for the top 30 percent upper class in India.

Q: What were some difficulties when you started work in India?

A: Definitely the language barrier, because I am not fluent in English. Communication was problematic because I could not deliver exact instructions, so the operation procedures for even the most basic things were difficult. What we did was repeat the same steps over and over to train our employees how to make drinks and other products. The most frustrating part at the beginning was that some workers were not punctual or did not show up at all. But I can now say with confidence that 95 percent of the team are here and ready on time.

Cafe Peter Doughnuts aims to introduce Korean-style pastries to its Indian customers

Q: How did you come to choose India?

A: In 2003, I stayed in Pune with my wife for a year. We came here when we were looking at potential markets for starting a bakery or cafe business in India, and we fell in love with this area. The visit was supposed to be a business trip, but it felt like a holiday for both of us. We were always considered workaholics back in Korea, but we truly felt like it was heaven with God here. That is why we had to return to India.

Q: Tell us about your business plans.

A: Now that we have a stable number of visitors at all our branches across the city, I want to introduce Korean dishes. I have already started putting Korean food on our menu, including the Korean stirred spicy sauce gochujang, into a cream pasta and noodle soup, or ramen. We also plan to introduce special healthy menus soon.

Pune residents in the area come to the cafe to enjoy not only food and drinks, but also the free Internet service.

Q: Do you plan to return to Korea any time soon?

A: Not just yet. The Korean restaurant business in India is still somewhat non-existent. There are a lot of U.S. franchises such as Starbucks and Burger King here, along with Italian restaurants, Mexican, Chinese, and even Japanese. So I want to be the bridge between Korean brands and the Indian market. I plan to be a business development partner between other potential Korean business that wish to enter the Indian market ㅡ like a window for people to look beyond the horizons of the domestic market and to target India's 1.3 billion people as their customers. Korean products are still somewhat exotic here, and I want to play the middleman for the endless array of goods that we can bring to India.

Jung Chan-seok, right, and his wife, Min Noh-yi, co-founded the cafe in 2010

Q: What does this cafe mean to you?

A: Cafe Peter Donuts is like a rainbow to us. I remember when we were exploring names for our restaurant. We remembered the biblical story of Noah's ark, and the rainbow as the message that God sent the people after the terrible storm ㅡ it was a promise of future, dreams, and hopes. We want to bring that message to our workers and customers, just like the promise that Noah received. We want our cafe to be a ‘rainbow factory' for people who wish to settle in India, possibly to sell Korean goods ㅡ and plant seeds of hope and a vision for others to dream the miracle that we are living today.