Feb 2007

Name: Chaula Patel

Business Name: Chaula’s

What do you sell? We sell curries which we make in the back of the shop. They are Gujurati style curries, and we make them all from scratch, which means we don’t just put different ingredients into the same ready-made sauce, like some other places do. We use no preservatives and no additives. We make our own masalas to go into the curries, too. The Gujurati style uses a lot of garamasala, a mix of ten or so different spices: I make my own. The secret’s in the blend. You can eat on the premises or take away. We also sell Indian sweets and savouries and pots and pans and a limited range of Indian clothes.

How long have you been running the business? I started cooking curries for the St Pancras stores 10 years ago, which we’d sell on a Friday evening. Word of mouth got round, and pretty soon there was a queue of 200 people round the block. We started selling curries through local shops in the area five years ago – I opened this premises in Station Street three and a half years ago.

What was on the premises before? For thirty years there was an Italian restaurant here, La Cucina. Then for a year or two there was an English food called the Stoyan Restaurant. We took over from them.

Where do you get your produce from? We get most of our vegetables, like cauliflowers, peppers, potatoes and onions from Bill’s. We get through between 150 and 15 kilos of onions a week! I can’t source some of the vegetables here, so I buy in things like okra, baby aubergines and bottle gourds from London. I also bulk buy spices from Tooting or Wembley.

What’s the most expensive thing in the shop? Food-wise, fish curry or jeera chicken at £4.50. The clothes we sell cost up to £25.

And the cheapest? Chutney comes at 50p a tub.

And the strangest? Kaju roll sweets, which come in an edible silver foil, with pistaccio inside.

What sort of customers come into your shop? Curry lovers. I find the people in Lewes well mannered, very supportive and very loyal. They are also very knowledgeable about curry – a lot of them have been to India and have experience of how food is cooked over there.

Is there anything that annoys you about your customers? No, never.

Which is your favourite shop in Lewes? I’m so busy I very rarely get time to go out shopping. I generally stock up on clothes when I go to India every two years or so. I like Bill’s, when I can get there.

What sort of business does Lewes need to attract? There is very little that caters for children between ten and fifteen years old. We need more shops and activities for them.

Would a commercial ‘mall’ in the Phoenix area destroy the High Street? It all depends on what sort of shops they put in, and particularly on parking opportunities. If they have a commercial shopping centre with easy parking in the Phoenix area all the businesses on this side of town will be killed completely dead.

What would you think of pedestrianising the centre of Lewes? Where would the traffic go? I don’t think that would help business here. If there are only pedestrians in the centre of town all the traffic would go round the outside and the custom would be gone. What we do need to do is to slow traffic down in the town centre.

Could you do anything to be greener? We’re looking at using recyclable packaging.

Have you any plans for expansion? We have some very interesting plans in the offing, but they must, for now, remain a secret. You’ll see soon enough.

Is there anything everyone always asks you? ‘Chaula, why don’t you start up a restaurant?