B enne dosa or dose, as purists insist, has taken the country by storm. Once confined to Bengaluru, this thick, crisp, golden-brown dosa, is now drawing long queues across Mumbai and Delhi. Such is its popularity — with its soft and almost pillowy insides and slathered with unprocessed white butter (benne in Kannada) — that even long-standing South Indian eateries have begun adding it to their menus. At the centre of this surge are Akhil Iyer, founder-producer of The Artist Collective, and Shriya Narayan, a psychologist. Originally from Bengaluru , Iyer moved to Mumbai about 13 years ago, while Narayan moved five years ago. Like true Bangaloreans, they craved the benne dose they grew up eating at institutions such as the Central Tiffin Room (CTR), Vidyarthi Bhavan and countless roadside stalls. In Mumbai, however, they struggled to find anything comparable. “So I thought of doing it myself,” Iyer said when they opened Benne in Bandra, in June 2024.…