In March 2020, when the entire country went into a lockdown, many businesses all across India suspended their operations. Some of them even shut down permanently. However, in the beautiful town of Cuncolim, Rohan Goes, an award winning travel photographer, was brainstorming for ideas. He saw that due to the lockdown, there was a rise in demand for home cooked food. In that difficult time of adversity, Rohan saw a huge opportunity to start a food business. He decided to start a cafe and had a unique concept for it in mind. After a couple of discussions with his brother Milroy Goes (who is an award winning film director) and other members of his family, Rohan’s dream project became a reality when Cafe Bom Gosto opened its doors to the public in April 2020.
In a brief chat with our staff writer Steve Antao, Milroy, the co-founder of Cafe Bom Gosto, provided a lot of insights into the concept of the cafe, its popular food offerings, its USP and much more…
Excerpts
Where is your cafe located?
Our cafe is located in the heart of Cuncolim town at the MJ Residency building. It is very close to the Cuncolim KTC Bus Stand and is just a few metres away from NH 66.
Tell us a little bit about your cafe.
My brother Rohan came up with the idea of starting the café. I and Rohan designed the menu together. We had the taste of the food prior to opening the cafe. We made everything at home first, as a trial within the family. We started the cafe in April 2020. The idea was to serve food during the time of lockdown. The cafe is very much a family business. My sister prepares a majority of the food items that we serve at the cafe.
What prompted you to start Cafe Bom Gosto? What was the idea behind starting this cafe?
Bom Gosto means “good taste” in Portuguese. As lovers of the Portuguese language, we gave that name to our cafe. Rohan and I wanted to start a nice meet-up place in Cuncolim, offering free WiFi, a place for co-working and meetings , with a mini-library, musical instruments and our own signature roast of coffee.
Give us a brief overview of all the members on the team at Cafe Bom Gosto.
The cafe was founded by Rohan and myself with a lot of support from our family. Rohan oversees the major operations of the cafe (the menu, the concept) while I look after aspects like branding, designing, and marketing.
What is your cafe famous for? What makes you stand out from your competition? What are your USPs and strengths?
Our very own signature roast of coffee, our delicious burgers, a wide variety of sandwiches and our signature Brownies are a few things which makes Cafe Bom Gosto stand out from other cafes in Goa.
What segment of people comprise your major customers?
Tourists and locals who are currently working remotely in Goa prefer to work from our cafe. We also have a large number of college students who frequent our cafe quite often.
What are your most popular food offerings?
Our most popular food offerings are various types of coffees, mocktails, burgers, sandwiches, Orange Americano, Donuts, Brownies and Eclairs
Apart from food, what else does your cafe offer? Do you have events and live musical performances at the cafe?
We often organize meet-ups as a social event, usually curated by Sidhant Mehra from New Jersey. Every Friday, we have live music performed by a local band called “LINEUPS”. Occasionally, we have “Open Mic” sessions organized by MC Celbert Dias.
What was the biggest challenge when starting this venture? And how did you overcome it?
Marketing was the biggest challenge that we faced as our cafe is located a little inside and not openly facing the highway (although it is very close to the highway). Thankfully, the Google Reviews help in bringing us up on Google Suggestions.
Can you share a piece of nostalgia/story related to your cafe that nobody knows about?
Me and my family were under lockdown and all of us, sitting inside the four walls made us think outside the box. We summed up every aspect of the cafe (the concept of the café, the menu, etc.) within 3 days and we got the premises to start the cafe immediately. Also, the number 7 is our lucky number and coincidentally, our shop number is also 7. Also, we opened the cafe on the “7th” of April 2020.
What role did family or friends play? Any quick incident you recall that helped you overcome a hurdle when planning this venture?
It was Rohan and I who helped each other while starting this cafe. Every legal aspect related to starting the cafe was taken care of by my lawyer brother Adv. F.P. Goes. We also received a lot of moral support from all our other brothers and sisters as well.
What was the response from the public like when the cafe just started off?
The locals were very supportive. They loved the concept of coffee, music, free WiFi, a mini-library and casual meetups. We got our business from the locals initially and now it’s been picked up by tourists as well.
What are your plans for the next few years? Do you plan to open more outlets in other parts of Goa?
Yes, we do have a full fledged plan for anyone to buy our franchise concept. That’s the way we want to extend support to our people to run a cafe business.
What thought would you like to leave our readers with?
If you dream of something, own it. But first, start by supporting a similar venture. In short, “do to others what you want them to do to you.”
Cafe Bom Gosto
Address:
Shop No. 7, MJ Residency, “Voddy” Vaddo,
Cuncolim, Goa – 403703
Google Business Page:
https://g.page/BomGostoGoa
Phone: 08149200177
