Community Highlights: Meet Sudipto & Chaitali of Hunger Square

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sudipto & Chaitali.

Hi Sudipto & Chaitali, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hunger Square started as a dream project during the peak of the pandemic in 2020 from a cloud kitchen, its primary objective was to serve freshly cooked home-style Indian meals to its patrons. During the first few months the average meal box numbers ranged from 5-10 boxes a day, but as the good word spread because of the quality delivered the number reached to almost 75 boxes a day.

In 2021 we decided to make the transition and expand our wings into the Dine in space. We selected a quaint hill town called Williams, near the Grand Canyon. The restaurant has a capacity of 110 guests. With the current labor shortage in the country, we decided to keep things simple. The restaurant operates on a micro menu concept that caters to guests having Vegetarian/Vegan and Non Vegetarian preferences.

The menu is extremely dynamic and changes every day. Largely all ingredients are locally sourced except for a few ethnic items. So far it’s been a roller coaster ride especially due to the shortage of staff in the service industry…. however, we are extremely optimistic that things will turn better in 2023. Also in 2023, the company has plans of launching its first plant-based outlet in California.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Like every other business Hunger Square too had its share of triumphs and turbulence, even though we have had extremely supportive guests and regulars both in the cloud kitchen and the restaurant but expansion in the menu and daily operations, and working hours had to be tweaked frequently to cope up the labor shortage in the restaurant industry.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about HUNGER SQUARE LLC?
Hunger Square Llc was formed in 2020 by Sudipto and Chaitali to serve home-style Indian meals cooked in a licensed commercial kitchen. The production and distribution were planned on the lines of a meal prep company. In the initial days, the number of orders was very few but slowly it increased astronomically because of the word of mouth and the quality we delivered.

In 2021 we expanded to our 110-seater dine-in facility in Williams in northern Arizona… in 2023 we are starting our plant-based restaurant in California. As chefs and entrepreneurs we specialize in various regional cuisines of India…. we are especially known for our Bengali Cuisine and live kebab catering events. The use of fresh ingredients, homemade spices, staying away from artificial colors, and not being ready-made sauce dependent is what sets us apart.

As a brand, we strongly believe in spreading the awareness of various regional cuisines of India to the American audience, and as a brand, we have been extremely fortunate to have been regularly setting up craft service setups for various television commercial shoots, golf clinics, and corporate power lunches. We are proud to be a registered craft service company with the Arizona Film Office.

Besides our restaurants, meal prep, and craft service we do cater to individual catering events…. we try and give a complete experience by setting up a live kitchen at the event venue and also involve our guests in learning a few culinary tricks.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
We would like to give the credit to our staff, and every guest who has tried our food and services. Without their love and support, we would not have been here.