Rongseninla Walling
Kohimas’ new sports cafe T‘N’T offers an experience of casual meets opulent. Including the favorites of food, beverages and games, T‘N’T provides a comfortable setting and quality that is perfect for a casual evening get together for friends and family or for an after-work meet-up. The Morung Express spoke with the T‘N’T owner, Tinsan to find out how the new sports café and its story.
T‘N’T sports café is a charming hideaway that will transport you away from the bustling street of PR Hill, Kohima to an aesthetically pleasing café instead. Tinsan, owner of T‘N’T sports café is not only a football fanatic but she is passionate about bringing authentic Chinese street food and culture to Nagaland.
Tinsan studied medicine in China. After coming back to Nagaland in 2015 she chose entrepreneurship over stethoscope, needles and the white coat. She describes that during her stay in China, she learned how Chinese people lived a very busy life and how besides having government jobs they would work part-time jobs.
After coming back to Nagaland, she observed that in Kohima there was no place to hang out for a leisure time. “We have restaurants but it closes early in the evening. Especially on Sundays after coming back from church there are no casual hangout places for families to go outings,” she said.
“I grew up in a family who are football fanatics so I developed an interest in football early on in my life so that’s how we came up with the idea of starting this sports café,” she added. The concept of the café was to create an ambience for a more relaxing and casual leisurely place and to recycle old things and incorporate it in the interior décor of the café and the other concept is to offer takeaway service to the customers.
Having a takeaway offering can be a way to increase the frequency of the customers for restaurants and cafés, and it also saves time as there is very low or no waiting time for the food to be served especially for people working in an office.
The art of fine dining has slowly taken a back seat in Nagaland while the casual food scene continues to grow gangbusters driven by a growing base of young consumers.
“There are lots of good restaurants in a formal setting but this day’s people prefer casual dining, ranging from fast food joints to family-style establishments,” she said.
People choose to eat in a more relaxed, casual ambience, especially after a long day at work people want to have their meal in a place where the food is served quickly and in a casual restaurant you can get up and go about your day without having to wait for your waiter or waitress to get the bill arranged.
Restaurateurs’ biggest challenge is to find a good location with parking lot area close to the establishment also keeping in mind the local cost of living in the area. “The location of our café is a hot spot in Kohima there are a lot of colleges in the vicinity we also have the main local taxi parking, offices as well banks so that’s the main reason why I choose this location,” Tinsan says.
What sets T‘N’T apart from other cafes is the fact that they provide a great sports café atmosphere with more comfortable and quirky seating and most importantly they serve better quality beverages and food in combination with the sports theme. “Our menu changes every day but the staple food item in the café are called Malatang which is a street food in China where customers can pick their desired ingredients such as vegetables and meat into a bowl and cook it in a spicy broth and then they eat with noodles or rice.”
Reliable internet connectivity is critical in today’s quick-service restaurant industry. With expanding options for serving customers such as in-store dining or home delivery, an internet connection can be crucial for generating revenues for restaurants and cafes.
“If we have better internet connectivity we can start home delivery service that way we can develop a better connection with the customers and another advantage of home delivery services is it saves time,” she says. “If this goes well I will definitely be expanding our outlets in other districts apart from Kohima and Dimapur,” the young aspiring entrepreneur expresses.
Being very vocal about the taxation challenges in Nagaland, she says, “I have a huge frustration regarding taxation in Nagaland, you are not only paying for one underground group but you pay to all the groups. It should be made as an annual payment but instead, they have street gangsters and crooks that would come with fake receipts and demand an astounding amount of money. With the taxes collected they should at least invest in the development of the state but instead, it all goes into their pockets. And another problem here in Nagaland is people don’t follow all the standard procedures, they don’t acquire the documents, registrations, safety approvals etc., when I started the café the first thing I did was get the trade license, fire extinguisher approvals and comply with food safety regulations and also maintain proper restaurant sanitation.”
On a personal note Tinsan shares that she has no intention of competing with other restaurants. “I just want people to come and have a good time with friends and family. It’s not just about the food but it is a place where you can socialize with people.”
She adds, “In Nagaland people look up to government jobs as the highest form of achievement, I have a degree in medicine but I’m more passionate to be an entrepreneur. I would encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to not lose your faith and passion and if you want to do, just go for it. So I would encourage everyone to not give up and keep on trying until you succeed.” T‘N’T Sports Café is located below SBI Life Insurance, PR Hill, Kohima and can be followed in Instagram @tnt_sports_cafe.
(Morung Express Feature)
