After a week of publicity and preparatory activity on the alley adjacent to FK, the Looters food truck was opened to the public on the 28th of August. The place has since been receiving customers in increasing numbers. Bharatharatna Puli, President of the Student Union, spoke of the groundwork behind the initiative in a recent interview.
Looters is the brainchild of Prateek Bothra, former President of the Student’s Union, and Dr. A.K. Sarkar, director of BITS Pilani. In the previous semester, Bothra and Puli had planned to restructure FK and they had pitched this idea to the director. The designs had the provisions for a lounge and game room. However, its implementation was not undertaken due to resource and time constraints and the director suggested an alternative.
When Dr. Sarkar visited the campus of another college, he found the idea of a food truck appealing. Contrary to what the name suggests, it is an immobile food stall. The director was of the opinion that a food truck would provide a different ambience from that of ANC or FK. The idea was accepted by the SU and Bothra began working towards its implementation in the final month of the previous semester.
‘Bothra wanted to test-run the food joint last semester itself. But due to time constraints, it could not happen’, said Puli. In spite of Bothra’s strenuous efforts towards the initiative, the construction of the food truck and assembly of equipment began only in the summer vacations.
The tender for the food joint has been given to the former owner of Mac&Cheese. Interestingly, Mac&Cheese used to be owned by two people. Due to a clash of business interests, one of them had resigned and founded his independent brand, Looters.
Nevertheless, one question remains unanswered – why another food joint?
The concept behind it is “quality enforced by competition”. The introduction of the new food joint will impose the pressure of competition on both ANC and FK. This will ensure that they strive to maintain quality so that they remain as relevant options for the hungry BITSian.
According to Puli, this initiative was inspired from the mess system in BITS Pilani, Goa campus. The Goa campus has only two central messes and they are managed by two independent caterers. Students are given weekly passes for their mess food and they are allowed to switch every week. This competition ensures that both the messes maintain high food quality.
Apart from the food joint, a section of FK has been allocated to -301 F, an ice-cream parlour. Their stall had run extremely well in APOGEE ’17 and the SU took the decision of accommodating them permanently.
Looters is open from 5 P.M. to 2 A.M every day and accepts payment through ID card and cash.