We are looking for a franchise partner in Kodaikanal — a hill town where a cup of hot chocolate is almost a greeting. Walk down Bazaar Road on any evening, festival season or dead quiet October, and you will still find people waiting outside a chocolate counter. That single habit tells you everything: we want someone who already knows these lanes to bring Tasty Nation's full dessert counter — waffles, shakes, brownies and more, not just hot chocolate — to Kodaikanal.
Kodaikanal already runs on dessert
Ask anyone where to take a visiting cousin and they will point to a chocolate shop before a restaurant. The mist and the cold here do something to appetite that the plains never do — people want something warm and sweet most evenings, tourist or local, season or off-season. That is not a once-in-a-while treat, that is daily habit, and it is exactly the kind of town where a dessert counter belongs, not just survives.
Who would actually be walking in
Picture who passes a shop near PT Road at eight at night: tourists back from Coaker's Walk or Pillar Rocks, cold and wanting something to warm their hands; families who drove up for the weekend with kids pulling them toward anything sweet; students from the Government Arts and Science College for Women grabbing a shake before the last bus home. On a visiting weekend at Kodaikanal International School, hundreds of parents are in town at once looking for somewhere nice to sit with their child. And through all of it, locals who live here year-round still queue for hot chocolate on an ordinary Tuesday. That is a wide, steady crowd, not only a summer one.
What the dessert map of this town is telling us
We looked at what is already open. Well over a dozen dedicated chocolate, cake and ice-cream shops operate here, several carrying over a thousand Google reviews each with ratings past 4.6, clustered mostly around Bazaar Road and the lake. That tells you dessert sells here easily. But look closer and the gap is obvious: almost all of them do one thing — chocolate, or cake, or ice cream, not a full counter. The handful of places that list a waffle or a boba tea on their board have barely a dozen or two Google reviews between them, more a side item than a real menu. Nobody here has put waffles, thickshakes, brownies, hot chocolate and boba tea on one counter and done all of it properly. That is the space a Tasty Nation outlet would walk into.
Where we think this works
You know these spots better than we do — here is where we think a counter gets walked past every single day of the year, not just in season.
- Bazaar Road, near the lake (standalone outlet): tourists walking between the lake and the bus stand, families stocking up on sweets before heading back. the heaviest walking footfall in town, already a cluster of chocolate and cake shops drawing crowds
- Seven Roads Junction / PT Road (standalone outlet): evening diners, Kodaikanal International School families on visiting weekends, locals out after dark. every road in town converges here at night; it is the busiest dinner stretch Kodaikanal has
- Kodaikanal Lake promenade / Lake Road (standalone outlet): boating families, cyclists, tourists on a slow evening walk. steady walk-by footfall all day, heaviest on weekends and through the summer season
- Observatory Road, near the Government Arts and Science College for Women (standalone outlet): college students after class, young staff finishing work nearby. a young, regular crowd with an evening snack-and-shake habit, away from the tourist crowd
Standalone, built for a hill town
Kodaikanal has no mall, so this is a standalone-outlet story — the way our Kay Food Street outlet in Chennai runs, your own counter and seating if the site allows it, open through the day into the evening when this town actually eats dessert. A smaller footprint closer to how our Vivira Mall counter runs works too if the site is tight. Either way, it leans on footfall that walks past on foot, which Kodaikanal has plenty of.
Who we are looking for
- Someone who already knows Kodaikanal — its lanes, its season, its quiet misty months — not someone discovering the town for this.
- Someone who can be at the counter, or close by, every single day, season and off-season both.
- Someone who genuinely likes talking to people — tourists, students, regulars — because that is most of the job.
- Someone with a site, or a clear plan for one, around the lake, Bazaar Road, Seven Roads Junction or the college stretch.
- Someone who will follow our recipes and standards exactly as taught. No food, kitchen or business experience needed.
What you get from us
You do not need to have run a kitchen before. Training takes just two days, hands-on at our Chennai outlets, and that is enough to start working the counter. We hand over every recipe and process, help with ingredient sourcing, and give you marketing materials to use locally. Food waste, one of the biggest costs in any food business, is almost nothing in a Tasty Nation outlet. After you reach out, it is a discovery call, then we look at your site together, then setup and training before you open. Message us on WhatsApp and let's talk about Kodaikanal.
Questions about a franchise in Kodaikanal
Does a dessert shop work here once the tourist season ends?
Kodaikanal's chocolate shops stay open and busy through the misty off-season too — locals keep the habit alive even when tourist numbers drop, which is the steady, everyday demand we look for before going into a town.
There are already so many chocolate shops here — is there really room for one more dessert brand?
Most of those shops do one thing — chocolate, cake or ice cream on their own. None puts waffles, milkshakes, brownies and boba tea on the same counter the way Tasty Nation does, so this is a different, wider menu, not a repeat of what's already there.
Do I need a mall or food court to bring Tasty Nation to Kodaikanal?
No. Kodaikanal doesn't have one, so this would be a standalone outlet, the format we run at Kay Food Street in Chennai, placed wherever footfall is already walking past.
I've never run a food business before — can I still do this?
Yes. Training is two days, hands-on at our Chennai outlets, and no previous food, kitchen or business background is needed to run the counter afterward.
Does the menu suit Kodaikanal's cold weather?
Our menu already includes hot chocolate made with real melted chocolate, which fits Kodaikanal's climate well; the exact items for your outlet get finalised together during setup.
How do I actually start this conversation?
Message us on WhatsApp. From there it's a discovery call, then a site visit together, before setup and training.
Who we are
We are Tasty Nation, a 100% vegetarian dessert brand from Chennai. Belgian waffles, thickshakes, sundaes, boba shakes, pancakes, brownies and hot chocolate: 85+ items on one menu. We opened at Kay Food Street, Pallikaranai in December 2023, and today we also run a food-court counter at Vivira Mall on OMR. Same recipes, two very different formats, so we can tell you honestly what each one is like to run. Tasty Nation® is a registered trademark (Licence No. 6368235). More about our franchise programme · see the menu.
Why a dessert outlet, and why you can do it
- People love sweet desserts. A waffle or a thickshake is an everyday treat for every age in Kodaikanal, not something saved for a festival.
- Almost no waste. Food waste is one of the biggest problems in the food business. A Tasty Nation outlet has almost none.
- Just 2 days of training. You, or anyone you hire, can start working after two days with us. No previous food, kitchen or business experience needed.
See our outlets
Real moments from our Chennai outlets, straight from @tastynation.in.
How it works
- Message us on WhatsApp with your name and the area you have in mind in Kodaikanal.
- A one-to-one call: we walk you through formats, investment and support, and get to know you.
- Site visit in Kodaikanal: we look at your proposed location together.
- Setup and 2-day training: store design, equipment, then two days of hands-on training at our Chennai outlets. No experience needed.
Book a one-to-one discussion
Register on WhatsApp with your name and the area you have in mind in Kodaikanal. Our franchise team will call you at a time that suits you to talk through formats, investment and support, one to one. Register on WhatsApp.
Also looking for partners nearby: Dindigul, Theni, Pollachi, Coimbatore. All Tamil Nadu cities.