(Left) Staff of Green Hills Restaurant and proprietor Kevihebi Mor pose for picture inside the restaurants’ open kitchen. The restaurant located in near the Nagaland Police Check Gate claims to be the ‘cleanest’ along the Dimapur-Kohima Highway. (Right) A side-view of the Green Hills Restaurant., located in Peducha. (Morung Photo)
With clean and spacious environment, the restaurant in Peducha cater to all types of customers
Morung Express News
Peducha | November 21
Conveyance between Nagaland’s commercial capital Dimapur and the State’s capital Kohima, is both exciting and challenging, particularly for those going up from Dimapur or outside the state.
With the start of the hill section, after crossing Chümoukedima, a traveler got the real sense of the State visual topography, while roadside stalls offering various food items and other products, including flowers and handicraft adds variety to the journey. At the same time, while wayside eateries at various locations offer host of culinary flavours, locating a decent place with good service and clean ambience to answer to their nature’s call is often challenging, particularly for women travelers.
For those looking for vegetarian fares as well as light snacks, finding an eatery is also, apart from a now- diverted vegetarian hotel in Sechti Zubza .
Enter ‘Green Hills Restaurant’
Nestled at a scenic location in Peducha, near the Nagaland Police Check Gate, the Green Hills Restaurant,’ however, may be to ‘answers’ to many such concerns.
This roadside restaurant has all potentialities to be the preferred destination for travelers traversing between the two biggest cities in Nagaland.
The idea is to give something different in the forms of clean environment, good ambience and a must-stopped location for the customers, explained Kevihebi Mor, the proprietor and a ‘veteran’ in hospitality and service industry.
Mor was among the 2014 batch of trainees who went at the Institute of Tourism and Future Management Trends (ITFT) Chandigarh for training in service industry management under then Neiphiu Rio-led Naga People’s Front Government.
Thereafter, he joined at the Golden Palms Hotel & Spa, Bengaluru and worked for 4 years. He later shifted to a Civil Engineering firm as a business development manager and spent another 4 years.
However, the call to ‘come back’ home was constant, and being the eldest added to the responsibility, Mor, told The Morung Express.
Eventually, he came back with a technology based firm, which is operating on the sidelines of his restaurant.
The Opening
Having trained and served in hospitalities industry, Mor said that he had desire to put in place the experiences accumulated over the years outside, while also offering job opportunities to local youth.
“The idea is to give opportunity to Nagas youth seeking employment without going outside,” he added.
Witnessing lack of decent eateries along the highway also offered Mor an opening to start the restaurant, a little different from others in terms of amenities and ambiance, but at comparable prices.
Presently, he informed that the restaurant is being managed by 6 staff, while there are opening for three more positions.
Three of them have previous work experience in Kerala and Itanagar and Bangeluru, while the other are fresh and simultaneously being trained on the job, he said.
Initially, the restaurant was scheduled to open in April 2020, but due to the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, it was postpone. The pandemic exactly extended the opening by one year to April, 2021, Mor said.
Green Hills’ USPs
For Mor, the idea is not providing a ‘luxury’ restaurant, but a place where a customer can enjoy clean and spacious ambience, at a reasonable price.
The interior may not be spectacular and may not differ much from others, but the Green Hills offers clean environment and the sittings are arranged in such a way that a customer can relax and enjoy their food, he noted.
Another unique selling point is the provision for a clean washroom.
Many traveler looks for clean place not only to have food, but answer to nature call peacefully. Accordingly, the restaurant has separate washroom “away from the kitchen for both men and women, he said.
There are three urinals and two toilets each washroom, and we are make sure that they are clean and replenish at all times, Mor said, adding “You never know when people may come and used the amenities.”
He, however, noted that there might sometimes be oversight, when staff are engaged, or due to the general ‘civic sense’ of the users.
“I should say this is the cleanest restaurant along the Dimapur to Kohima,” Mor maintained.
Meanwhile, another USP of Green Hills is that it is the only restaurant with an ‘open kitchen concept’ along the stretch, the proprietor claimed.
The idea is to offer the customer a more visible approach to preparing food a ‘transparent manner’ in the form of freshness, hygiene and so on, he said.
The restaurant’s have both vegetarian and non vegetarian food items.
According the Mor, while separate kitchens vegetarian and non vegetarian is not possible as of now, care is taken that the utensils used for making the food, including the ladle, pots and chopping boards are used separately.
While the restaurant opens till 8-9PM, sometimes, the proprietor informed that it remains opens if there is ‘urgent and advance request’ from customer.
Another USP is provision for have impromptu meeting, a sort of conference hall, provided at a corner of the restaurant.
It is aimed at enabling business and other meetings anywhere and anytime, impromptu or otherwise, Mor stated, besides hosting events.
Meanwhile, reportedly, the responses to the Green Hills have been positive so far.
Good responses
“The responses are very good and I am getting good review. All those who have stepped-in into the restaurant once, are coming back,” Mor claimed. This, despite, a bit diversion due to ongoing road construction work at the stretch, he said, adding: “If things go well, we still have some plan to expand.”
The Morung Express visited the restaurant three times over a two-month period and observed that the quality of cleanliness and services were more or less the same.
It was further observed that the restaurant’s offers both light and heavy menu, catering to the needs of different customers. The restaurant offers breakfast, lunch, dinners and snacks menu, all in one stop.
The pricing are competitive with others along the highway and two water bottles are given as complimentary in each table.
