This Sunday, 2/27 at 10pm, we’re closing the doors on our Marina location for good. It’s been a long time coming after an extremely difficult year in business. The original Kasa in the Castro was busy right out of the gate and fortunately has remained that way ever since. Kasa Castro was the first restaurant venture Anamika, Suresh, and I have ever participated in, and honestly we took its success for granted. We thought: provide delicious and unique food and good service at a reasonable price, and you’ll make a profit. And amazingly we were right!
Until we weren’t. At all. The Marina store proved us wrong and showed us exactly what everybody kept telling us–that the restaurant business is HARD and fraught with risk. And that we were lucky to have a success under our belt. Despite making some classic rookie mistakes in the Marina (the space was too big for our concept so never had that “packed” look we wanted, the color pallet was too dark for the space, no TVs despite the Marina’s sport-obsessed residents), we put everything we had into making that store busier and successful. The food reviews were really solid, repeat business was strong, but attracting enough interest and ultimately enough trial just never happened. How could two very similar restaurants with identical food yield such different results? Sometimes it felt like the stores were in two different states!
We spent the last year trying to turn things around and finally decided a few months ago to exit the location. People usually offer their condolences when we tell them we’re closing, but truthfully at this point it’s a great relief. We learned many lessons from this failure, but thankfully it didn’t bring down our entire business. Those lessons turned out to be at a great financial cost (my dad would call it tuition), but hopefully we will use our new knowledge wisely as we continue our quest to get more people eating Kasa’s kati rolls and homestyle Indian food.
On a personal note, I will miss our loyal Marina customers. You all kept praising our food and thanking us for being in the neighborhood. You made those not-quite-busy-enough, stressful evenings at the restaurant bearable for me. You know who you are, and I thank you. Please come visit me in the Castro.
As for the future, we are still planning to roll out a food truck called The Kati Roller sometime before summer. There will likely be another (much smaller) location in the works toward the end of this year as well. Although I’m not allowed to spill the beans yet, there is another operator with an exciting concept taking over our space in the Marina in the coming months.
Goodbye, Marina.
Tim
The saddest part for sure, was having to let go of some wonderful staff!! A big thanks to all the supporting people around us, including a bunch of seasoned restauranteurs who shared their failures and mistakes with us.
While we are sad to be losing such a fantastic neighbor in Kasa, we are very happy and proud to have met such wonderful people in the first place! Best of luck Tim!
As soon as I saw the steam tables, I decided I would never eat there.
The folks in the Marina didn’t realize what a good thing they had. I, for one, will dearly miss you, Kasa Marina.
thanks for your honesty and grace. your experience reveals a lot. You were my staple when i was in that neighborhood.
good luck in the castro and in future ventures!
but I was going to take my mom (visiting from PDX) there on Friday while wandering the Marina & Fillmore! Nooooooooooooooo!
Sorry things didn’t work out in the Marina, but I can see how it would be a relief (mentally, if not financially) to decide to end that run. We were happy and loyal customers while were living in the neighborhood, and I’m sorry that others didn’t realize what great food you had to offer. (And, yeah, you probably were in two different states within the same city!)
A tough business to be sure, but I’m glad that the Castro location is humming along. We’ll be sure to stop by soon.
In addition to the large space and the dark color pallet, the reasons you failed are:
- consistently bad service
- very limited Kathi menu choices
- and finally, a menu that was difficult to decipher (I have seen people come in stare at the menu for a long time, look for someone to help them – and no one would because they were either busy at the register or just doing their own thing – and then just leave)
Growing up in the city I have always loved eating Indian food and thought Kasa was great. The service was good and although it was clear from the start your space was way too large.
You should find a space similar to Marina Kebob. They have a similar price point but a much smaller space.
Hopefully you’re back in the Marina soon, I’m going to miss Kasa two nights a week for dinner.
You guys are amazing, I love the honesty in your posts. Bob and I will continue to frequent the Castro location and look forward to the Kati Roller! Best of luck, keep up the great work.