Owning a Kati Roll With Family or a Partner

The Kati Roll Company has been built by more than one person from its first year. Payal Saha opened the first store on MacDougal Street in 2002 with one assistant, and Anil Bathwal joined her that same year. Today Payal is our Founder and Anil is our Managing Director. Our first franchise partner opened both of our Texas stores, downtown Dallas on April 4, 2024 and Plano that August, with a business partner.

Their jobs were different from the start. Payal opened the store with no restaurant experience, cooking the street food of her hometown the way she remembered it. Anil came to the company from a career as a creative director, the career that first brought the couple to New York from Kolkata, and his direction grew one store into the group it is today.

If you are thinking about owning a Kati Roll with a spouse, a sibling, a parent, a friend or a business partner, here is what to settle before you apply.

Settle the roles first

A Kati Roll is a hands-on store. The fillings are marinated every day, the chutney is made fresh every day, and every roll is made to order. Someone has to own that, every day. Before you apply, agree who leads the store day to day.

Then name the other jobs. A store also needs someone on the site search, the lease and the build, someone on hiring and the schedule, and someone on the books. In a partnership those can sit with different people, as long as everyone knows who decides what.

• Who runs the store day to day, and who supports it from behind?
• How much capital does each of you put in, and where does it come from?
• Who has the final call when you disagree about the business?
• What happens if one of you wants to step back in year three?
• Is the plan one store, or a group of stores over time?
• Who speaks for the business on calls with our team, and who comes to Discovery in New York?

Answer those in writing, together, before the introduction call, and keep the written version. It is the start of your plan.

Plan the capital together

We do not offer financing, so a partnership's capital is part of the plan from the start. Being financially prepared is one of the five things we look for in every partner. The published figures, each with its caveats, are in what a Kati Roll franchise costs.

Read the agreement together

You receive our Franchise Disclosure Document during your application: take your time with it, read it together, and review it with your own advisers. We do not summarize its terms here, because the FDD and your franchise agreement govern. Bring every question to Discovery.

Come to Discovery together

Discovery is the fourth of our five steps: you come to New York, eat with us, meet the team and see the stores. MacDougal Street is where the first store opened, in 300 square feet. A lunch at Midtown West, a block south of Bryant Park, shows the same food on an office street, made the same way.

Discovery is also a good moment to see how you work as a pair before anything is signed. From inquiry to opening walks through every step around it.

Respect between owners

Our principle is respect: for yourself, your team and the food. In a business owned by family or friends, it applies between the owners as much as it does to the crew: in how you split the work, how you settle a disagreement and how you treat each other in front of the team.

If your plan is more than one store, multi-unit agreements for 3 to 5 units are strongly preferred, and our first franchise partner opened a second Texas store, in Plano, within the same year as Dallas. A second brand for restaurant operators covers growing past one store, and if neither of you has owned a restaurant before, read owning a Kati Roll as a first-time owner. Everything else is on our franchise page.

This post is not an offer to sell a franchise. An offer is made only by a Franchise Disclosure Document delivered in accordance with applicable law.