A Finger in Other Pies
Restaurateur AD Singh is cooking up a storm —
by investing in new concepts and mentoring young chefs
When you see me at parties, you see me as feeding off the energy of people, of friends
who I have not met for a while and who are happy to see me… but if you put me in
a room full of strangers, I may come away without having spoken to anyone…really,
I am a fairly reserved person…” It is a statement that makes you stop in your tracks
— coming as it does from AD Singh, one of India’s most recognizable restaurateuring
faces, who can’t quite shrug off the “socialite” tag.
We see him on Page 3 photographed at his beautiful restaurants with the pretty
people: the very epitome of a wining-dining lifestyle that he helped usher into this
country almost a decade-and-half ago. Aspiring middle India ostensibly still cannot
get enough of that. But when AD says he is quieter than his image suggests,
you should perhaps believe him. Olive (his path-breaking “lifestyle” restaurant brand)
notwithstanding, this year has seen some of the most exciting concepts in the country
come out of his stable — quietly, sans hullabaloo.
From a jazzed-up Irani café to a contemporarized Japanese standalone, from
a quaint Parisian-style bistro to the country’s first gastro pub, quirky, young
and “unabashedly desi”, these are cool, young concepts totally different from
all that Olive connotes. Instead of that big, all-white chic-ness, for instance,
these are smaller, quirkier. The audiences they tap into are different from the
older, aiming-at-sophistication set. And the food is certainly not comfort Med.
New Concepts, New Faces
Kitchen Cabinet: AD Singh with (clockwise from left)
Naina de Bois-Juzan, Sujan S, Vikram Khatri and Saby
Instead, the new restaurants have been put in place by bright, talented chefs at the
cutting-edge of culinary cool, with just one common factor: Olive and AD. Some
are in partnership with the parent company (owning substantial stakes), others are
employees. All have unique sensibilities and takes on food. Their restaurants have
turned AD Singh’s Olive Bar and Kitchen from what could have been a single-brand
chain to a creative studio of sorts where ‘boutique-y’ concepts are being experimented
in and executed.
“I have always been a creator. My passion has not been business,” says AD, who
launched Just Desserts in Mumbai in 1990, with 50,000. For that, he had rented
space from an Irani café— post its closing hour of 7.30 pm — and would put
tables and chairs, change the look of the space and serve up coffee and desserts,
sourcing the latter from Parsi homecooks.
Olive, of course, first came up in 2000 in Bandra, and changed the complexion
of Indian F&B. The standalone format had come into its own, out of the five-star
shadow. As had the age of the celeb-restaurateur. And despite getting corporatized
more recently (with two rounds of funding, the latest was in October 2012 by the
Aditya Birla PE fund), AD and Olive both remained indistinguishable and both
continued to stand for a particular “lifestyle” experience. Till now. Circa 2013,
the aggressive rolling out of new concepts comes as a response to changing
tastes and trends of a more youthful India. More funds have been available for
growth. But also what has prompted this has been a creative surge within the
company — chefs and operators wanting to turn entrepreneurial. “My best people
were being chased around and offered blank cheques,” says AD, “and I knew
if there was no scope for them to grow, I would lose them.” It took the ambition
and candour of chef Manu Chandra (who helmed Olive Beach in Bangalore
and Mumbai for years) and Chetan Rampal (who was the erstwhile business
development head for the Olive group) to kickstart a process where the
company would change character and partnership and Esops be made
available for prized employees.
Both Chandra and Rampal wanted to own their own products. “Even while
working for AD, he never treated us as employees and we never treated
ourselves as such,” says Rampal. The duo, who decided to form their own
company, clearly had both the wherewithal and credibility to go their own way.
But having shared a “healthy relationship with AD”, they went to him and
became the first Olive partners — putting in considerable personal investments
as well.
Monkey Bar, India’s first gastro pub, which rolled out in Bangalore last year
(and comes to Delhi this December), has been the very successful result of this
partnership (Olive owns 60%, Chandra-Rampal the rest and are the managing
directors, running the business entirely independently; Chandra also continues to
look after Olive Beach Bangalore). From cocktails in a lotta to ker sangri-beef
pickle, keema-pao to the best hamburgers and pork belly in the business, Monkey
Bar is not just trendy but also “unabashedly desi” as Chandra puts it.
The immensely scalable model will have five more outlets up in the next two years,
even as Bangalore registers a whopping 40% profitability in an industry where
the norm for successful formats is 20%.
A Bistro of my Own Since Chandra and Rampal are experienced, they don’t need any hand-holding.
“What is the point of working with creative people if you don’t let them function?”
AD asks. But other partners with different skill sets may need more of his “support
and guidance”. Naina de Bois-Juzan was known to AD “slightly, socially” before
she came to her with her concept of “bistronomy”. Like so many, she too had a dream
— of running her own bistro, albeit in New Delhi. She spent time in Paris
researching and came back with a fully fleshed out concept of a space
that was small, intimate and ownerdriven, with a limited menu, prepared
fresh from non-fancy ingredients.
At Le Bistro du Parc, where Bois-Juzan is patron and partowner,
half the pleasure is in finding that there is no foie gras or other allegedly
luxe ingredients on the menu. Instead of pate, Naina serves up the likes
of homely rillettes, pitches in with the service and is firmly the bistro’s face.
The majority stake is held by Olive but AD is quietly in the background.
“We gave her support in areas she required…right from the critical size of
the kitchen to the fact that the menu even though it is limited had to have
more than six dishes on it,” says AD. The bistro will now go to other cities; next to Mumbai.
The fact that AD is no longer the face of the restaurants is quite in
keeping with the general direction in which the business is headed in India
. Instead of cookiecutter chains, individualistic spaces are on the rise.
But even within this ‘boutique-y’ culture, large formats manned by celeb
chefs/owners are giving way to smaller, casual versions accessible to the
critical market of 25-35 year olds.
AD’s peer in Delhi, Ritu Dalmia, as intertwined with her brand Diva
as AD is with Olive, has been following this path — where casual cafes
instead of a flagship restaurant like Diva are driving the business.
Each of these cafes has individuality but it matters less and less to the
average diner whether these are, in fact, owned by Dalmia.
This democratization while retaining soul is behind commercial success too.
Olive’s strategy is different from Diva’s though in that it is not solely focussing
on the parent brand. Instead, it has become an umbrella company for diverse,
smaller concepts. “But we are very careful about each restaurant that we launch b
ecause even if one does not do well, it undoes the work of 3-4 others,” says AD.
Small is Beautiful Partnerships apart, teams within the parent company are researching ideas. Soda
Bottle Opener Walla, for instance, a take on the old Irani cafes in Mumbai, has
just opened up in Gurgaon. It recreates the dying legacy with jars at the counter
with mawa cakes and cookies and fresh pao warmed up in a home-style oven.
On the menu: berry pulao, cutlets, Irani chai and Mumbai street snacks. It has
been put together by the chef Saby, another Olive veteran, who has since quit
the company to start his consultancy and possibly a TV show (“this is my
bye-bye gift to AD”) though the partnership option was available to him as well.
One of the biggest failures for the Olive group in the past five years was Ai,
a Japanese standalone set almost 12-14,000 sq ft in Delhi’s Saket neighbourhood.
It was the quintessential sprawling AD restaurant. But it failed and taught him a
lesson in keeping it lean. The restaurant is now reincarnated as Guppy by Ai
in just 2,200 sq ft and has come up at less than 20% of the cost of the original
— four-and-half years down the line! Vikram Khatri, another talented chef
is in charge.
Leaner models also mean that a whole new line of Olive pizzerias, and Olive bistros
are on the anvil in cities including Hyderabad, Pune and Gurgaon (20 in the next
one-and-half-two years). The average investment for the new smaller restaurants
is now 2-2.5 crore instead of 10 crore of a big, quintessential Olive. The Local,
literally a local speakeasy opened earlier this year in Mumbai in a partnership.
And meanwhile, Sujan S, a chef takes over the flagship restaurants in Delhi and
Mumbai, infusing freshness. “I returned to India from the UK because of him [AD],” he says.
Other unconventional people who have been brought in include Mohit Balachandran
, a popular blogger, who now looks at business development and travels the country
recording home-style recipes. His understanding is harnessed not just for the
“2-3 [Indian] projects” in future but also for the catering division, The Moving Kitchen.
Though the strength of this popular catering service has always been Western food,
it is set to have an interesting Indian menu with additions from different vendors,
who can do select home-style dishes, and who are being carefully handpicked.
The best haleem or pulao may just come from the Olive stable! We are watching.
Naina de Bois-Juzan,
partner and patron, Le Bistro du Parc “We learn from each other and respect each other’s vision. It is important to be able to have frank and open discussions with partners
and we share that with AD”
Saby,
chef and consultant
“AD has been a mentor for the longest time. I owe everything and every bit of my success to him. I would love to be associated with him in any future project as an adviser ”
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