Chicago: On weekend mornings in many parts of Chicago, we see people line up for hot dosa and steaming cups of chai, hot empanadas, or warm bowls of ramen. On weekday mornings at train stations and office lobbies and public spaces across the city, the choices rarely go beyond bagels, muffins and breakfast sandwiches.
Across the world, mornings begin with an extraordinary range of foods. There’s steamed idli with sambar in South India, savory rice congee in China, spiced fava beans in Egypt, millet porridge in West Africa, and so much more. Many of these breakfasts are light, wholesome and built on grains, legumes, fermented foods and vegetables.
In the American morning rush, most of that variety disappears. Commuters grabbing food between home and the office typically choose from bagels, muffins, pastries and sandwiches, or skip breakfast entirely. Teenagers running to high school or college end up with a large iced coffee, and young ones demand for sugary snacks.
Aarti Ramdasi, mom of two, and a daily Chicago-commuter and her niece Abhidnya Ramdasi, a retail designer and advertising graduate, want to change that.
As Aarti commuted to work each morning, she found either herself or her teens skipping breakfast. She observed that most people were seen with baked goods or just a coffee in the morning. This was her pain point.
Having grown up in India, Abhidnya was used to eating meals backed by a wholesome thought process and a wide variety of health-rich options. Breakfast is considered one of the most important meals of the day in India and Abhidnya had a hard time adjusting to the idea of only a baked good and caffeine for the morning.She believes that the morning meal deserves better, and that the world has already figured out how.
Abhindya’s experience living and travelling through many parts of Europe only strengthened her belief. She saw that even though there was a morning rush demand for easy-to-carry breakfast items, the traditional breakfast all across Europe had adapted itself to this speed. The dishes maintained their nature, but were altered in the way they were presented. This sparked the idea for the concept of the Breakfast window. The underlying idea was to bridge the gap between an elaborate setup to gain nutrition, fighting against ease, convenience and the time crunch.
Their concept is a walk-up window kiosk serving “breakfast bites”: small, portable, nourishing portions of traditional breakfast dishes from cultures around the world, adapted to be eaten easily on the go! The format is built for the morning rush. Customers walk up to a single street-facing service window, order from a short menu board, and have breakfast in hand within minutes, as easy as grabbing a coffee. Small kiosks would be placed where commuters already pass each morning.
The menu would be such that it is easy to serve and requires little to no pre-serving preparation, Abhidnya envisions the design to be simple and compact, providing enough space for basic food-grade preparations. She is working on optimally designing the spaces and structures. The small footprint keeps costs low. That makes it possible to open several locations and rotate the menu, so regulars can travel the world one breakfast at a time.
Every local cuisine has hidden secrets that have the potential of making it as a global breakfast.
They would like to hear from the residents of Chicago about how their cultural food can become a global breakfast phenomenon and are open to ideas! Abhidnya and Aarti urge residents to share their suggestions. The top 3 suggestions will earn a prize amount as well as spot on this menu!
Please drop your suggestions at breakfastkiosk@gmail.com
