With an indigenous approach to hospitality. He developed an appreciation for fine food because of his extensive exposure to some of the best restaurants in London and New York while working there in private banking and equity trading for a span of nine years. He partnered with Riyaaz Amlani, six years ago and came onboard with Impresario and is extensively involved in every aspects of the brands growth. Recently, Sid, together with Atul Sikand, creator and curator of Facebook’s busiest Indian recipe-sharing group, Sikandalous Cuisine; Tanveer Kwatra, Executive Chef, Le Meridien Gurgaon; and acclaimed restaurant critic and food blogger, Sourish Bhattacharyya has brought to Delhi’s customers’ ‘Asian Hawkers Market’, a three day feast for Asian Cuisine.
As you are the men behind bringing Social to Delhi. How does the response look like?
We had now nine social in total, three in Delhi, two in Bengaluru, and four in Mumbai. We are also planning to open two more Social in Delhi-NCR, one each at Epicuria Mall, Nehru Place and other at CyberHub, Gurgaon.
How does you finalise the locations for your outlets?
We have very strong team on board. My forte is food and Riyaaz forte is to find the best locations. We decide locations on looking at an area, what are people doing around that area and what’s the demand there.
How are you making each of your outlets different from other?
You go to a restaurant which is close to you. Some people go there to drink and some to work. The very important part of social is the workspace and it catches people who are close to that space. We also tweak the decor and design of each of the outlet. So, the CP outlet has a school theme to it. The trophies, the balls, the uniform everything makes it like a school. Also, we try to add some menu changes so that when you are working you try something different. Disco fry dish, clipboard menu. Patties and menu inspired from location of CP is the new addition. What according to you is the major change in F&B industry?
I think people are looking at more cuisine options. Earlier, they were stuck between Indian and Chinese. But, today there is lot more awareness about what people are doing around. Variety and value are two major points now that people are going to start with a restaurant.
What made you come up with another edition in just three months?
We did the first one in October and got phenomenal response. The response was great in terms of getting the catchment and getting restaurants on board. We had great footfall because we were trying to do which was never happened in the market, either bringing restaurants which people were not familiar of, or we have asked restaurants to do something which is typically not in their menu. Giving the customer an experience which never lasts, I think that caught all and we are here. Select CityWalk are actually were keen and we have signed a three years of deal with them to do many Asian Hawkers Market with them. We are planning at doing two in a year. One around October-November and one in February.
What are the criteria to bring restaurants on board?
It’s combination of couple of things- the restaurant should be pioneer of Asian cuisines in India. We also focus on balancing the cuisines- suppose we are having 30 Chinese restaurants and we see that there is underweight in a particular cuisine so we may reach out to a Thai restaurant and say you may fit here. It’s all about balancing the menu and offering it to the customers’.
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