Coimbatore was a small town in 1909 when Sadasiva Iyer of Kallikottai established his coffee club at Raja street. He began by serving godhuma ravai uppuma, idli, chutney and sambar without onions to his clients. Sadasiva Iyer and his family lived and worked from the same premises and his school teacher son C.S. Nanjundier (1905 - 1991) used to help him out regularly from his childhood. The idli batter was made by hand everyday and Sadasiva Iyer used to be up by 4 a.m. and have a bath before beginning his work for the day. The clients had to sit on wooden planks known as 'palagais' and the tiffin used to be served on plantain leaves. The customers had to remove the used plantain leaves after eating and leave it in the place meant for its disposal.
"Our elders insisted on the used leaves to be removed by our customers simply to ensure that food was not wasted," stated Krishnamurthy, the youngest grandson of Sadasiva Iyer. Nanjundier began his life by helping out his father with preparation, serving and billing. He was also a teacher at the City Municipal High School those days and if not for his wife Seethalakshmi it would not have been possible to take care of the business. "My mother was an amazing person and she was the main worker who used to prepare the food while also managing the show. My father used to leave for work by about 10 a.m. and she used to continue to work hard throughout the day. She looked after the hotel and all of us with aplomb. We are what we are because of her work culture," reminisced Krishnamurthy.
Sadasiva Iyer Coffee Club is one-of-its-kind food outlet which just served breakfast. The fact that all the work was done by the members of the family all along makes the story all the most interesting. "We ate whatever was made for our clients and only the lunch and dinner was made exclusively for us because we did not offer anything other than breakfast to our clients who came from all walks of life. All of us have done hotel work. My brothers Jagadeesan, Sivaraman, Sadasivam and sisters Meenakshi and Annapoorani have worked for the hotel. We never employed cooks and had helpers only for the purpose of cleaning up or washing the vessels. In fact, my sister- in- law, Geethamani Sadasivam used to make batter until the day she delivered her child in 1985 and they appointed a person only at that moment. Idlis were sold in paise and my father used to be a school master even while offering food to his clients. He used to believe in the 'first come first served' policy and people ate whatever was served by him. No one used to question his methods, be it family or be it our clients," added the third gen hotelier.
The hotel served lunch and other items only after the advent of the grand children. "My father had to take care of his family and a number of guests who used to troop in regularly. He used to be financially stressed at times. However his salary used to cover 15 days of expenditure and the hotel took care of the remaining 15 days in a month. Therefore, he was both shop-dependent and salary-dependent. We had our regular customers. Dr. Srinivasan, Dr.Radha Ramani, Anganna Guptha, E.G.M. Govindarajulu Chettiar, the TV Brothers family, P.A. Raju Chettiar and S. Kamaleswaran Chettiar who used to present himself like the iconic jeweller. Jayanthi Jewellery Venkataraman was another regular and Pandurangan Chettiar was among the few who had breakfast everyday at our place. O.S. Ramaswamy Iyer was another regular and at one time our former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran was served food from the Sadasiva Iyer Coffee Club through the Perur Kovil Thakkar, Perur Shanmughasundaram. 'Idhayam Pesugiradhu' Maniyan had our food and wrote about us too. Another popular editor who visited us during his trips to Coimbatore was 'Gundoosi' Radhakrishnan. Besides these people, a number of journalists and writers used to frequent our coffee club," shared the son of Nanjundier.
The family added sandhigai, pongal, rava roast along with maainji later on and also began serving lunch during its prime business days. The lunch used to include rasam, sambhar, thayir, payasam, poriyal, kootu, appalam, uppu, urugai and sadham. The rava roast was so famous that there used to be a rush in the evenings for it was not available for breakfast. "We used to get our provisions from the nearby Kodandarama Stores that was owned by Avatharam Chettiar and the plantain leaves from Ramiah Nadar. My father got the veggies from the shops in the market directly. In the preconcrete jungle period. All the houses in our neighbourhood had trees and I remember that we had nine coconut trees here. Some of our employees were part-time and one of our part-timers used to work at M.S.Manickam & Co those days. Several of our workers are well to do people today and one of them is a successful advocate," smiled Krishnamurthy who had taken a break from his sleep after a hard days work in order to share nuggets connected with the ancient Sadasiva Iyer Coffee Club.
"Our Sadasiva Iyer Coffee Club functioned without electricity for the first 25 years and they used to work with the aid of lamps during the early hours of the day. Wood and charcoal were used as fuel. Heavy brass vessels were used those days. Washing the grease off was a major thing in the times when modern cleaning agents were absent. It was a breakfast hotel and used to be shut for the rest of the day. Our property is narrow and long. We were all born here, grew up here, studied here, learned to work here, got married here and settled down as caterers here itself. It's been 108 years since my grandfather Sadasiva Iyer began and we are continuing the same tradition after him and our parents. Nanjundier and Seethalakshmi," stated a visibly content Krishnamurthy.
Sadasiva Iyer Coffee Club is the oldest restaurant in Coimbatore and the owner made and owner stuff of the times had won the hearts of many a Coimbatorean those days.