Thalassery eatery hits a ton with rice and mutton chaaps

What if the pot used to cook today’s lunch were older than you? At Modern Hotel, a century-old eatery in Thalassery, rice is still cooked over the same hearth, in the same kitchen, and in vessels that have served generations.

The copper vessels used at Modern Hotel are older than the man who now runs it. They have lasted through generations of cooks and customers, yet remain in daily use. Started in 1926, the eatery is now run by the third generation of N K Damodaran’s family. Much of its food and its cooking methods remain unchanged.

This is the latest stop in Served Since, Onmanorama Food & Travel’s series exploring Kerala’s oldest eateries and the stories behind them.

It all began in 1926, when Kunjikannan Butler, who had worked as a chef in a British kitchen, opened the establishment. In its early days, it was a small eatery and tea shop. In 1940, N K Damodaran, fondly known as Damuettan, came to the eatery looking for work. He joined as a young worker and eventually took charge of it.

How quality ingredients changed its fortunes
Damodaran’s insistence on good ingredients helped change the eatery's fortunes. He would go to Thalassery market himself to buy vegetables, fish and rice, choosing quality over everything else. As customers began to notice the difference, word spread and more of them came to Modern Hotel for lunch.

Lunch soon became its biggest draw. The meal is served from 12.30 pm to 4 pm. Rice, curries and side dishes fill the table, but the dish that has brought generations of customers back is the mutton chaaps served with the meal. (Mutton chaap, usually singular as the name of the dish, is a well-known South Asian preparation. ‘Chaap’ generally refers to meat attached to a rib or chop bone).

People who kept the kitchen going
Modern Hotel has never been about elaborate food. Its emphasis has been on good ingredients and careful preparation. Even today, masala powders are prepared in-house.

The hotel has also retained many of its staff for decades. Some have worked there for more than 40 years. Akshay, who now runs Modern Hotel, says their long association has created a close-knit team.

“Everyone here is like family. It is teamwork. We need all these people working together to produce this food. Their coordination is what keeps the hotel going,” he says.

Akshay is the grandson of N K Damodaran, the man who joined Modern Hotel as a young worker and eventually took charge of it. He grew up visiting the eatery with his grandfather, long before he imagined he would one day be running it.

For years, Akshay worked in Bengaluru. But his connection to the family business remained. When his uncle, who had been running the eatery along with Akshay’s father, died in 2021, the future of Modern Hotel became uncertain. The family considered selling the business or entrusting its management to someone else.

Akshay decided to return, leaving his job in Bengaluru to take over the family business.

“I have a strong emotional connection with this hotel. When I was young, I used to come here holding my grandfather’s hand. I have so many memories here,” he says. “I thought I should at least try. I wanted to take this forward and make it successful,” Akshay says. Today, he represents the third generation of Damodaran’s family to run Modern Hotel.

Returning for the same rice for 49 years
The family is not the only one with a long history at Modern Hotel. Some customers have been returning for decades. Mukundan has been eating there for 49 years. He knew Akshay’s family from the days when Akshay’s grandfather ran the eatery and remembers visiting with his own family. Ask him what he likes most at Modern Hotel, and the answer is simple: the rice.

For customers like him, that continuity is part of the experience. The people, the food and the way the meal is served have changed little over the years.

Taking it forward without changing it
For Akshay, running Modern Hotel does not mean turning it into a modern restaurant. The old desks and benches are still in place. The kitchen continues to function much as it did before, and the old copper vessels are still used to cook the rice.

Preserving the eatery in its old form is not the easier option. “We can demolish the whole building and give it a new look. But keeping it authentic is the difficult part,” Akshay says. But those details are part of what makes Modern Hotel what it is.

Every morning, the kitchen begins preparing rice by 5 am. By noon, the dining room is ready for the lunch crowd. After lunch, the menu changes. From 5 pm to 9.30 pm, Modern Hotel serves tea and snacks to customers. The eatery employs 35 people, including three cooks and several members of staff who have worked there for decades. Together with the family, they have preserved the way the place operates.

A century of familiar food
Modern Hotel celebrated its centenary this year. A century after Kunjikannan Butler first opened its doors, the eatery still retains much of the look, food, and daily routine that generations of customers have known. Located opposite BEMP High School on MG Road in Thalassery, Modern Hotel is in the heart of the town.

For some, it is a place for a good lunch. For others, it is part of their childhood. And for people like Mukundan, it is simply the place where the rice tastes the way it always has. After a century, perhaps the most remarkable thing about Modern Hotel is not how much it has changed, but how much it has kept the same.