Dosas in a San Francisco street corner? South India Street Food in the heart of San Francisco?  I walk by Market and Montogomery quite often and how in heaven’s name did I fail to see this?  Who started Dosa Brothers? These were the thoughts flitting through my mind as I impatiently waited for the traffic light to turn green. My eyes were fixated on that orange sign, and at the man, who was flipping dosas. I wanted to rush and find out all about Dosa Brothers and how Waheguru Khalsa came to serve South Indian Street Food in the heart of San Francisco.

Khalsa was busy talking on the phone, so I turned to Tsering, who was waiting to pick up her dosa to find out how she discovered this place? Turns out that she found out about Dosa Brothers from her colleagues at work. Tsering is originally from the Southern state of Karnataka, and anytime she has a hankering for South Indian food she lands up at Dosa Brothers.

Khalsa it turns out discovered dosas while studying in Amritsar in Punjab, India. About 5 years ago he started his dosa business in Colorado. A couple of years ago he moved to San Francisco. He started Dosa Brothers in San Francisco last year and now has multiple food stands in the city. Like me, quite a few people are pleasantly surprised to discover his food stand. Sometimes Indian travelers arrive start from the airport to his food stand. You see his food stand is right outside Mongomery BART station in San Francisco.

Here is the backstory of how an American came to serve a popular South Indian street food in San Francisco.

LISTEN TO WAHEGURU KHALSA OF DOSA BROTHERS IN SAN FRANCISCO:

In my two decades in the San Francisco Bay area I have never ever seen a dosa vendor in downtown San Francisco. Well, there are a couple of dosa trucks, but I had not seen that All-American street food vendor selling dosas. You typically have to go a restaurant to eat dosas or curry favor from a friend, who can whip out these tasty,crispy and addictive dish. Clearly, you can see that I am totally in love with dosas.

What are dosas you ask? They are an Indian crepe version made of rice and lentils and are served plain or with some kind of a filling and chutney and sambar, a lentil soup. Think of dosas as the Indian equivalent of hamburger and fries. I will bet my bottom dollar that dosas rank as one of the top favorite dishes for Indians.

Here is a video interview with Khalsa.