Couple ventures from Fort McMurray to Dildo to open an Indian restaurant

DILDO, N.L. — Last summer, Sulagna Sanyal and Raj Menon were a Fort McMurray couple with not much planned beyond a camping trip within Alberta.

Then they met some Newfoundlanders.

A year later, they are the proud, hard-working owners of Yes B'y Indian Kitchen of Dildo.

The story behind the name began shortly after the camping trip meet-up.

Sanyal and Menon, who were living in the heart of Alberta's oilpatch at the time, decided on a whim to take an unplanned trip to Newfoundland and Labrador to see the place they'd heard about from the other camping couple.

During the weeklong visit, a realtor showed them a property along the water in Dildo that they couldn't stop thinking about.

"Dildo is so beautiful, that’s why we decided to buy it," explained Sanyal, who owns Yes B'y Indian Kitchen of Dildo with her husband.

The restaurant officially opened July 31, 35 kilometres south of Heart's Desire on the scenic Baccalieu Trail along Trinity Bay.

The business and the story behind it is unique on multiple fronts. For one thing, the relationship between Fort McMurray and Canada's most eastern province typically works the other way around. Workers and their families leave Newfoundland and Labrador to make a living in Alberta's oil and gas sector.

Secondly, fresh Indian food is basically unheard of in rural communities in Newfoundland.

That said, Dildo attracts its share of attention. The popular Dildo Brewing Company opened two years ago, and the town gained a lot of attention last year when it was featured on multiple episodes of the American talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" The welcome sign for Dildo is a destination too, with people routinely stopping to get a photo taken in front of it.

Let's just say they're not all fans of history or the sea, but they arrive anyway.

"I think there is potential here in Newfoundland, for sure," said Menon. "It's a question of tapping into those resources, because there's many things happening. The government is supportive ... I think it's time for people to rethink about Newfoundland. There's a lot of opportunity here."

New life

Having left well-paying jobs in Alberta to start a new life in Newfoundland, Menon and Sanyal moved to Dildo last November. They initially looked at establishing a retreat on their waterfront property with A-frame houses to rent and a restaurant on site. But funding was hard to secure, particularly once the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Sanyal said there were lots of worries during the pandemic. They even debated moving to Toronto, given work options locally were limited and they did not have a lot of personal savings to rely on.

Fortunately, Menon and Sanyal were quickly able to shift gears and find another way to start a business. With financial support and guidance from CBDC Trinity-Conception, the couple were able to open the restaurant this summer.

"The local community here is just fantastic. We have no friends, no family. We just moved in one fine day and settled down. The local community — our neighbours and a lot of the people — they proactively came down on the first day and second day and ordered food." — Raj Menon

"It's a big, big thing to start a business during COVID, so I would say they had that faith in us ... We definitely appreciate that," Sanyal said.

Menon and Sanyal initially shared their traditional Indian cooking with locals at shed parties in Dildo.

"And people really liked it," said Sanyal.

Recognizing their nearest competition for serving Indian food was 100 kilometres away in the St. John's metro area, Sanyal and Menon were optimistic they could make the restaurant work by offering a product that otherwise wasn't available locally.

"Most of the people here are used to the salt fish and potato kind of a palate," Menon said. "Having a lot of this spicy (food) won't be a great idea. Having said that, we are really pleasantly surprised, because there are a lot of people here who have travelled out of Newfoundland. They've come back from Ontario and Toronto and they're settled here ... and they really understand and really love that Indian palate."

Milder meals

During the first month of business, Yes B'y Indian Kitchen served customers eating Indian food for the first time and many of those customers have returned for subsequent meals. Sanyal acknowledges they make an effort to keep the spiciness of their food milder than what they'd serve at home.

"When we started, we were cognizant of the fact our client is not our regular Indian or Asian client," Menon added.

The business is predominantly takeout, though it can accommodate travelers who need somewhere to sit and eat. Beyond common dishes one might expect to find at an Indian restaurant like butter chicken and chicken tikka masala, Yes B'y Indian Kitchen has some unique offerings, such as the spinach and potato curry aloo palak and a beet curry.

"We have it at our home," Menon said. "That kind of flavour is also what we're trying to bring in and to not just be very commercial about the cooking."

The response so far has been extremely positive.

"The local community here is just fantastic," Menon said. "We have no friends, no family. We just moved in one fine day and settled down. The local community — our neighbours and a lot of the people — they proactively came down on the first day and second day and ordered food."

Their social media presence is also rising, with over 1,000 likes on the restaurant's Facebook page. Menon credits word of mouth for news of the restaurant's opening making its way to other parts of the province.

Twitter: @CBNAndrew