Birth: 1951, Palpa
Death: 2021, Bangkok
These days, Kathmandu valley is brimful with fast-food joints. It was a completely different case three decades ago, when, in 1991, Shyam Sunderlal Kakshapati established the first ‘The Bakery Café’ outlet at Teendhara. In doing so, he laid the first pillar of Nepal’s fast food culture.
The trailblazing businessman and co-founder of the famed Nanglo Restaurant, Kakshapati passed away on August 9 at a hospital in Bangkok. There, Kakshapati, 70, had been undergoing treatment for oral cancer for the past four months.
Kakshapati was born in Palpa district, into a family involved in garment and retail business. After his father’s death, the family moved to Kathmandu. It was here that he ventured into the businesses that would come to define him.
In his mid-teens, he opened Sam’s Grocery Shop at Ratnapark. The shop thrived as its candies and orange juice became sought-after novelties.
By this time, he had recognized that Nepal didn’t have a restaurant-going culture. So in 1973, a determined Kakshapati set up Cafe de Park, right next to Ranipokhari. It soon became a popular hang-out for young college students. In 1976, along with his brother Gopal, he started Nanglo at Durbarmarg.
The restaurant became popular among Kathmandu’s residents as it catered to a diverse clientele, hosting families and businessmen. Five years later, he started the popular Nanglo Chinese Room as well. Nanglo’s success over the years resulted in its expansion in and outside Kathmandu valley. Then came The Bakery Café.
In 1997, Kakshapati broke with tradition to employ 12 people with hearing disabilities at the café’s New Baneshwor outlet—having trained them himself. The chain now has nine outlets and over 40 hearing-impaired employees.
The man behind the Riverside Spring Resort in Kurintar was elected the president of the Hotel Association of Nepal in 2012.
Kakshapati spearheaded other ventures as well, albeit with comparably less success. The Nanglo Bazaar, a supermarket at Putalisadak, was a failed venture, as were his yellow Hyundai taxis that he introduced in Kathmandu in 1994. His Shuvatara School had to be shut this May after being buffeted by Covid-19 lockdowns.
Kakshapati shall be remembered as an astute restaurateur and a driven businessman who left an indelible mark on Nepal’s restaurant culture. He is survived by his wife, a son, and a daughter.
