FAMILY-FRIENDLY FARE, AND MORE
Businesses and non-profit organizations regularly open and move in Saskatoon. Today, the Starphoenix talks to Sachin Chaudhary and Karna Desai, partners along with Abhinay Bhatla in the Flats Eatery + Drink that opened in May 2023 in University Heights. This is the fourth Flats Eatery in Saskatchewan and first in Saskatoon.
Bhatla originally opened in Estevan about 10 years ago, with a Moose Jaw outlet following and then into Regina about three years ago. Along with Chaudhary and Desai, the trio felt their restaurant would be well received in Saskatoon. They feature a family friendly atmosphere in the restaurant that seats up to 180 people, and are open from 8 a.m. until late every day.
Q Why did you open the Flats Eatery in Saskatoon?
Karna Desai: Before we launched to the big cities, we wanted to make sure that the Flats were working in smaller communities. That's why we opened the second one in Moose Jaw. When we had success there, then we finally decided to head to Regina and Saskatoon.
It is a big market in the University Heights area of Saskatoon. We have that benefit where we can have a large menu, aggressive pricing and more inclusive hours, because in the morning if anyone wants to eat, they can come here for breakfast.
Sachin Chaudhary: Saskatoon is a bigger city with a bigger population. There is more growth here. When we opened in Regina — another bigger city — we got a good response from customers. We decided Saskatoon was next.
Q What sets the Flats Eatery apart?
Chaudhary: This is a family restaurant with homemade food and great service. We never start cooking until you order. Everything comes fresh all the time. We serve breakfast, brunch, lunch, supper and everything. It's a full-day operation.
Desai: It's very homey. We have great staff who are very welcoming with fresh food in a nice atmosphere. We cater to all different age groups — whether you're a six-year-old kid or a 70-year-old, or a 20-year-old. We have something for everybody.
Because we serve breakfast, we get many families coming in with kids. We are a great family restaurant. For the younger crowd, we have a great lounge area. They can go crazy and have fun with loud music.
Q What's on your breakfast menu?
Chaudhary: We have lots of benedicts that are very popular — steak benedict, classic benedict, brisket benedict. We have an early riser, which is poutine on cubed hash browns with a poached egg and hollandaise on top. That is popular, as well. We sell breakfast until 4 p.m. every day.
Q What stands out on your lunch and dinner menu?
Chaudhary: We sell many fresh-cut steaks every day. We have a regular rib-eye, a Texas rib-eye and a caramelized rib-eye. If you go with the New York striploin, we have a regular striploin and a surf and turf with shrimp and scallops. We do prime rib, as well. We also have pasta and salads and a homemade pork cutlet. Our lunch and supper menus are combined over four large pages.
For lunch, people can have an easy and fast lunch with wraps and sandwiches. We have four kinds of wraps right now, including Thai chicken wrap, buffalo, blackened chicken wrap and chicken Caesar wrap. The Thai wrap and buffalo chicken are most popular. For the Thai chicken wrap, we use lettuce, tomato, shredded cheese, spicy sweet Thai sauce, bacon and crispy chicken. The buffalo wrap is similar with lettuce, tomato, shredded cheese, crispy chicken and buffalo ranch sauce.
Q Do you serve desserts?
Chaudhary: Our most popular homemade effort is apple crisp served with ice cream. We also have strawberry champagne cheesecake, peanut butter brownie cheesecake, Skor cheesecake and crème brûlée cheesecake.
Q What's your most popular cocktail?
Chaudhary: Our Flats Caesar is our highest selling cocktail. The seasoning we use for the Caesar makes it a little different. It's clamato, Worcestershire sauce, a little bit of Tabasco sauce, Smirnoff
house vodka, and then we use steak spice, maple bacon and a mixture of other spices.
Q Do you have a happy hour? Chaudhary:
We have a happy hour every day from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and then from 9 p.m. to closing. Our happy hour combines food and drinks. We sell cheeseburger with fries, steak sandwich with fries, Thai wrap and some appetizers, like dry ribs, at a cheaper price.
Q Do you provide entertainment?
Chaudhary: We started live music every Thursday night at 8 p.m. We had been doing this frequently before, but now we are going to do it every Thursday. We will bring in different singers all the time.
Q Do you host fundraisers?
Chaudhary: We host steak fundraisers for teams and others up to about 80 people. We do our best to give a deal so they can raise more money through their fundraiser. We do that on Mondays and Tuesdays. If we have a bigger group, then we accommodate them in the dining area. If they are below 20 or 25 in number, we give them a private dining area.
Q Why are you called the Flats Eatery?
Desai: We are called the Flats because here in Saskatchewan we have a flat land on the Prairies. It's named for the people of Saskatchewan. We like the name because it has a nice story and it sounds great.