Choudhari Bhandu Mithaiwale

Our little shop, Choudhari Bhandu Mithaiwale, is sitting in a corner of Sadashiv Peth 4. If you know this part of the city, you know it is full of old buildings and very narrow lanes. We have been working out of this same spot for a very long time. It is a small space that smells like ghee and cardamom almost every hour of the day. We have to wake up when it is still dark outside to get the big pots going. There is so much stirring involved in making traditional mithai. My arms get pretty tired sometimes, but this is the work we chose to do. We don't have a fancy website or any marketing people helping us. We just open the shop shutters in the morning and wait for folks to walk in. A lot of our customers are neighbors who have lived in Sadashiv Peth for their whole lives. They know our names and we usually know what they are going to buy before they even ask. We sell things like laddoos and various milk-based sweets. The packaging is just plain cardboard boxes with our name stamped on them. Sometimes the shop feels a little cramped when more than three people are inside at once, but it works for us. We try to keep the place tidy, though the old walls definitely show their age. It is an honest living and we just take things day by day. We don't do anything flashy here.