Running the Extra Mile
Written by: Cristina Deptula
Nikita Khandheria's Success Recipe
Nikita Khandheria's Recipe for Success
Coast to Coast: How Ditas Founder manages to run a successful restaurant while juggling college and cross-country flights.
Among the rising wave of young restaurant owners, Sausalito’s Nikita Khandheria starts each day with at least a three-mile (4.8 km) run. She says that’s what she needs to release her competitive energy.
“Our team notices a difference in me after I’ve had my run,” she says. “They remind me to go get my exercise, as I’m much easier to deal with then.”
An athlete since childhood, Khandheria suggests that if she hadn’t opened Ditas in coastal Sausalito, she might have played rugby professionally. She currently enjoys climbing walls and treadmill jogs, taking phone calls and listening to podcasts while moving her body.
Khandheria approaches business with the mindset of an athlete on the field or in the gym, always ready to pivot with changing conditions and determined to keep improving her performance. As her personal aphorism goes, “Excellence is a moving target.”
Nikita Khandheria's Restaurateurs
Early Excellence
A Women-Owned Restaurant Fuelled By Imagination
Unlike most restaurateurs, Khandheria is in her early twenties, still finishing college on the East Coast, and flying across the country weekly to Sausalito to check on Ditas.
“I make that work by doing everything on the plane: reading, writing, studying. I can do everything except working out on the plane,” says Khandheria.
Though young, she’s far from inexperienced: Khandheria began her career at age twelve in India, doing medical checkups at a clinic for rural women. As a teen, she attended law school in the United States, trying her first case in a San Francisco district court at age fifteen. She was attracted to dependency law as it provided opportunities for her to advocate for people and families.
Later, she was accepted to a dual degree program that, while quite prestigious, would take her away from her family for quite some time. Sad about not being able to see her as often, her dad brought her along to one of his business trips in India.
“One morning, he had to go somewhere at 6:30,” she remembers. “I was annoyed that he’d got me up so early, so while he was gone, I thought I’d embarrass him by wandering the hotel and inserting myself into random conversations. I stepped into a room where some entrepreneurs were discussing restaurants, and I asked very good questions. The rest is history!”
Restaurateurs plates
Restaurateurs plates
Restaurateurs plates
From the Imagination to the Plate
A self-described “nerd and jock,” Khandheria chose Ditas’ location because it was one of the places where she and her dad would stop and brainstorm an imagined business plan for something that could be successful there.
“It’s beautiful, with coastal views,” she says, “but also a bit secluded so the crowds aren’t overwhelming and so that it’s not competing with all of the other local restaurants.”
Khandheria says that people come to eat at places that mean something to them and that she always wanted to build a community center as well as a restaurant. With Ditas, she believes she’s done that, as the restaurant has many regulars whom she’s gotten to know over time.
“Plenty of wonderful people come in here to eat,” says Khandheria. “And I love to hear their stories and learn from them.”
She prides herself on building an impressive roster of culinary professionals, including a chef who has previously worked at The French Laundry. “What’s most important in the people who bring their skills to Ditas is competence and knowledge,” she says. “And the ability to pivot and change direction based on customer feedback.”
Ditas’ staff changed their entire menu and concept after getting many requests from customers for different kinds of food. “We pride ourselves on saying yes to those we serve,” says Khandheria.
natural flavors of the food
Inspired Pairings
Ditas’ current concept is minimalistic, highlighting the natural flavors of the food.
“We offer comfort food that’s recognizable, but we pair things up in combinations people haven’t seen before but are delicious, such as grapefruit and scallops. We cook for our guests, not our egos,” Khandheria says.
Her favorite food at Ditas is steak, as she’s always loved steak. She also enjoys the duck tacos and the bread and butter even though she has celiac disease and shouldn’t eat much bread. “Our bread is worth getting sick for,” she jokes.
Everything Ditas serves is locally grown except the protein, which they source from suppliers and try to make as sustainable as possible. Ditas also cooks with all parts of the food in order to minimize waste—for example, turning carrot shavings into a delicious soup.
They also contribute to the San Francisco (SF) Bay Area community by making donations to the SF Zoo, theater companies, and the SF school district, and they hope to do more in the future.
Ditas natural flavors of the food
Next Steps
TrooRa Magazine
Words
Cristina Deptula
California, USA
