BHARATI PAWASKAR
For any hardworking, committed and dedicated person who is not ashamed of doing any job or business and leaves no stone unturned to achieve his goal, nothing seems impossible. The same is the story of Valis brothers who were raised by their hard-working mother Romaldin Valis after she lost her husband. To make things worse, her three sons -- Wilson, Anjose and Freddy -- were too young. Poverty did not deter Romaldin, who took care of her sons by working hard. Looking at their mother work so hard, her sons too followed in her footsteps.
Recalls Romaldin’s youngest son Freddy, who runs Cool N Spice restaurant in Ponda, “While my mother could somehow manage to educate our elder brother Wilson, my second brother Anjose had to drop out of school to look after the family. He even sold vegetables to earn money. During the tourist season, he worked as a waiter in hotels on the coastal beach belt and saved some pounds and dollars that he was given as tips by foreigners. I too joined him as a waiter at Candolim and both of us worked sincerely. Whatever we could save was utilised for my education and home expenses. I studied mechanical engineering in Karnataka, but Anjose sacrificed his career for us.”
Their hard work paid off and today Freddy and Anjose own three restaurants in Goa while his elder brother Wilson works as a manager at Cipla in Kundaim. Recently, the Valis brothers opened a gift shop in Margao and a wine shop in Ponda.
How did it all start? After the brothers managed to save a little extra money, they thought of running a restaurant somewhere. They stumbled upon an advertisement in a newspaper regarding a space for rent and applied for it. Looking at the determination of these young brothers, the kind owner of this place, Barreto, offered it on rent to them. The place was their first restaurant -- ‘Cool N Spice’ -- which is today a decade old.
With Chinese, Tandoor, Goan, Indian and Continental food on the menu, it is the most popular open-air, eco-friendly space in Margao where lovers of sports spend happy hours. There is a live screen arranged to watch all kinds of matches seven days a week. The weekends are full and on week days too the customer flow is steady.
“Today Barreto is no more, but his wife has continued with the agreement and we still run this restaurant which has a 120-plus seating capacity,” shares Freddy, who mostly manages the ‘Cool N Spice’ restaurant in Ponda which has a capacity to seat 80. “As Ponda is our hometown, we thought of starting our second restaurant ‘Cool N Spice’ here and this dream came true four years ago. With the profits of our Margao ‘Cool N Spice’ venture we could purchase this space and even an adjacent hall as a venue for party events called Minguel’s. We have also opened another restaurant in Margao, ‘Golden Fork’ and opened a gift shop ‘Kimkan Island’ adjacent to it. A wine shop also with the same name ‘Cool N Spice’ is a recent addition to our business empire,” informs Freddy who offers the credit for this growth and prosperity to his brother Anjose.
The reason for venturing into ‘Golden Fork’ , a family restaurant in Margao in a rented place on the same road two years ago was to offer an air-conditioned, sophisticated ambience and a decent space for the families to sit and dine. The capacity of ‘Golden Fork’ is 90 and the menu is slightly different “ with focus on Chinese dishes. “We offer good quality food at reasonable rates. The minimum price of any dish begins at Rs 140 and the maximum would be Rs 480 in all our restaurants. We provide free delivery for our takeaway orders. We wish to maintain our rapport of offering good food,” states Freddy who focuses on keeping alive the Goan traditional cuisine. “Apart from traditional meals, we offer special Goan thali, kingfish curry, prawns curry, pomfret or king prawns curry, veg pulao, chicken or prawns pulao too “ all at a reasonable price,” maintains Freddy.
Their celebration venue in Ponda ‘Minguel’s’ is a party hall that can accommodate around 300 persons which comes with a package of catering, decoration and music. The menus in both ‘Cool N Spice’ restaurants are almost similar. “Our chefs Sanjay, Manoj, Vijay and Sunil along with a team of experienced professional cooks serve delicious food. We take no break and are open from 10 in the morning to midnight,” boasts Freddy.
Freddy feels that instead of looking for jobs abroad or on the ship, today’s Goan youth must try to start their own business, however small it is in the beginning. “Hard work can make them achieve their dream. We should stay in Goa and serve our motherland instead of leaving for foreign shores. And sky is the limit, for anyone who is committed to working hard,”he says.
