By Sourish Bhattacharyya
A PATCH of land across the road from the
Capital’s Hyatt Regency hotel,
skirting a busy road that’s called Africa
Avenue, overlooking an old colony of government officials (where yours
truly grew up, is transforming into a retail and entertainment zone where Rahul Akerkar’s celebrated Colaba restaurant,
Indigo, will have its first outpost
in Delhi.
Heritage real estate developer and
chartered accountant Sanjeev Batra,
who gave the cowlands of Mehrauli a new chic identity by turning around the
stables of an old haveli into a
restaurant space where Delhi’s first Olive
Bar & Kitchen opened about a decade ago (and blueFrog more recently), acquired
the patch of land from the Delhi Government about four years ago. Overlooking
the busy Ring Road and Bhikaji Cama
Place business district, it was a meeting point of anti-socials, with an
open drain on one side, a sleepy Coffee Home run by the Government of Delhi-NCT
not far from it and a beehive of car workshops behind it. It took Batra months
to clear the area, but with the firm back of the Delhi Government and civic
agencies, he was able to turn it around.
That was the project’s first phase. Batra
had envisaged it as a recreated heritage zone, but then came his son, Samegh, after his higher studies abroad
(University of Essex, UK) and turned the idea around to make it a contemporary
space for young people to hang out. Apart from Indigo, the space will have fashion
retail and handicrafts outlets, a performance area for art, fashion, theatre and
music, and a park where families will be encouraged to have Sunday picnics with
food hampers provided by Indigo and carts operated by the restaurant will sell hot
dogs. There will also be a 200ft blackboard on the boundary wall for children
to doodle on.
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| Rahul Akerkar makes his first foray outside Mumbai since he opened his Colaba restaurant in 1999. Image: Courtesy of www.foodindigo.com |
“We want to create a space for citizens
to savour the open-air pleasures that we enjoyed as children before the mall
culture overtook the city,” says Sanjeev Batra. “The project will set the pace
for the proper use of public spaces and the government has really backed us on
it.” Samegh, his son, is the Managing Director of the House of Sunrydge, the
company steering this urban renewal project.
Sharing his vision for Indigo Delhi, Rahul
Akerkar, the man who opened the widely acclaimed restaurant in Mumbai in 1999, says
in a media release: “Just as in Mumbai, Indigo in New Delhi will be a ‘back-to-basics’ address that will
serve up eclectic modern European fare, coupled with an expansive bar and a
private dining section.”
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| Sanjeev Batra at his first development, One Style Mile, Mehrauli, where Olive Bar & Kitchen opened a decade ago |
On his food, says the self-taught
chef and entrepreneur, who got bitten by the restaurateur’s bug when he was
dishwashing at a French bistro to pay his way through college in the U.S.: “The
food is fundamentally ingredient-driven and contemporary in construction with
strong and distinct flavours, with Indian and Asian influences.” Olive Bar and
Kitchen loosened up the city’s stuffy dining culture when it opened at One Style Mile, Mehrauli. Indigo will complete this process of transformation.
Significantly, Indigo’s Rahul Akerkar and Olive’s AD Singh were once working
together, running Just Desserts many
moons ago in Mumbai, where Akerkar met his wife Malini. They have since gone
their own ways, but now, they are in one city, so look out for the wheels of change
working overtime.
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