Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ritu Nagri. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ritu, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

“Paapi Paet ka sawaal hai” in Hindi is very commonly used to justify that whatever you do is to earn two square meals for this hungry tummy. When I thought of starting this cloud kitchen, the whole idea behind it was to earn since I had done absolutely nothing to earn in the US being on H4 visa and desperately wanted to introduce people to North Indian especially Delhi style meals. There still are not many places in Austin that will make you experience how authentic food from the North especially tastes like.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Well, I am Ritu Nagri, a proud kashmiri pandit, a post graduate in Forensic Chemistry & Toxicology. I got married to this Punjabi boy Himanshu Mehta and moved to the US.

His pride and passion for Punjabi food and flavours always wanted the wife in me to cook great food for him. I was not used to Punjabi style of cooking and knowledge of Kashmiri cuisine was no help. Being on a dependant visa after marriage became a blessing in disguise. I started following a lot of North Indian chefs on youtube and tried to mimic their style of cooking. Took me six good years to satisfy his taste buds.

He has been my constant support and plays a pivotal role in keeping this small business alive with his continuous constructive criticism.

After getting my work authorisation, we thought of scaling up this hobby of mine. Overnight Paapi Paet LLC was born. It was my brain child and is now in its toddler stage. Paapi Paet specialises in North Indian style meals which includes Delhi street food and chaats.

Paapi Paet LLC is dedicated to delighting the clients with memorable meals crafted from locally sourced ingredients. We are committed to staying as authentic to North Indian cuisine as possible. Our passion for excellence drives us to continuously exceed expectations and inspire a love for great food.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Some key elements that have helped us build and retain our reputation so far have been consistency, staying as authentic as we can, ability to serve high quality food, maintaining standards, customer satisfaction, staying open to feedback and continuous improvisations.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Word of mouth has played wonders for us. Our consistency has brought us where we are today.

Secondly, I have been saying this to everyone I meet these days that, “social media is the BOSS & content is the KING”. Creating a strong online presence is the key to grow your clientale. More the content on your social media pages, more is the engagement and merrier you are seeing your clientale grow.

There was a time when we couldn’t attend to our social media accounts and we could literally see a drop in new customers. On that note, we would like to thank  our loyal patrons who kept supporting us no matter how good or bad we have been at social marketing.

Targetting the audience and its needs is a constant requirement. Each week, we include items in our menu that caters to the needs of our existing as well as acquired clientale. If a party needs a catering and wishes to have a tasting experience, we make sure to include those items in our menu for them to try before they order it for their event.

Collaborating with other businesses definitely helped us expand our reach and getting new clients. We recently collaborated with IDIA USA which s a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization for women welfare in Texas. Met a lot of small business owners like us and look forward to more collaborations.

Encouraging repeat business by offering incentives such as discounts, special offers, or loyalty rewards for frequent customers has their own charm. These programs not only reward existing customers but also incentivise them to spread the word and bring in new business through referrals.

Sharing customer experiences/ reviews on social media, not only increases our visibility as a business but also provides an authentic social proof of the kind of work we do.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @paapipaetleander
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paapipaetleander/

Image Credits
Ritu Nagri