High Rollers Hold Back Big Bucks at This Year's Diwali Parties, But Food & Drink Get Better

This article appeared in Mail Today, Delhi/NCR, on 02/11/2013.

Copyright: Mail Today

http://epaper.mailtoday.in/epaperhome.aspx?issue=2112013

By Sourish Bhattacharyya and Radhika Bhalla

Diwali parties may be seeing less money being thrown
around this year, but the food, wine and single malt
offerings are getting better by the year. Image:
Courtesy of www.buzzintown.com

THIS is the weekend when the pace and magnitude of Diwali card parties picks up, but the city's punters are already complaining about the market having become "thanda". They blame the cooling down of property transactions for the dampening of the high-roller sentiment this season.

Diwali has traditionally been the season of brisk property sales, which in turn has sustained the cash economy that comes into play at the imported roulette tables of the city's richie-rich parties. This season, the punters are no longer talking about fatcats sauntering in with suitcases bulging with money at Chhattarpur farmhouses or of Rs 5 lakh being the minimum 'move'.As one veteran of these parties put it ruefully, "There's a liquidity crunch." In other words, there's not enough liquid cash floating around in the grey market. But of course, card parties have shown no signs of slowing down. They continue to go on till 6 or 7 a.m. -- the time people leading less colourful lives normally set off on their morning constitutional -- though the stakes may not be as high as before.Two features of this season stand out, according to insiders. The first is the growing visibility of the scions of business families -- not the prominent ones, but those that are locally important, from rice traders to car dealers. These young men with their trophy wives, each one of them a walking DLF Emporio, are the new high-rollers. Even they are being restrained in their 'moves'. No one's putting more than a couple of lakhs per move. And these high rollers literally enjoy elevated positions at card parties -- they play in secluded cabanas or on machans. Hosts are also judged by the number of roulette tables they set up, enabling guests to indulge their passion for blackjack.At the more 'affordable' parties, the 'blinds' range from Rs 8,000 to Rs 20,000 and in some cases even Rs 1 lakh. But the minimum buy-in at medium/high poker games, a favourite of the scions, extends from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. The 'ladies', who are assigned separate tables away from the men, play with very small stakes that their husbands wouldn't even sniff at.The other trend, which is not a new practice but has held its ground, is that no one gets to play on credit. This old practice often led to ugly situations in the past. The most infamous incident was that of a former cricket czar ending up owing Rs 1 crore to a late hotelier after a cards party. The day after got so out of hand that the former (and controversial) BCCI top honcho's industrialist father had to bail him out by paying in installments the money his son owed. Since then, you're allowed to play on the high tables only if you have the cash and you can move' only what you have.The money changing hands this season may not be high, but the hosts of card parties are pulling out all the stops when it comes to showing their hospitable side. Single malts are the flavour of the season. At one such party, on offer to guest were a hundred single malts, some of them from the barrels of distilleries that had stopped operating decades ago. Italy's premium red wine, Barolo, is another favourite, and the hosts are going to great lengths to get their wine lists right.Finger food, fondue (this year's flavour of the season) and kebabs accompany these libations and they continue to be served through the night. "The stakes may be lower, but our business is booming this year," said a caterer who's popular at high-end card parties. Win some, lose some. Isn't that what gambling is all about?

DINING OUT: Fashionably Late, But Cavalli Caffe Gets Its New Menu Right

This review first appeared in Mail Today, Delhi/NCR, on 10/11/2013.
Copyright: Mail Today Newspapers.

To see the epaper version, go to http://epaper.mailtoday.in/epaperhome.aspx?issue=1112013

and click on Page 23.

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

DINING OUT

WHAT: Cavalli Caffe

WHERE: Ground Floor Atrium, DLF Emporio, Nelson Mandela Marg, Vasant Kunj

WHEN: 11 A.M. TO 11 A.M. (last order)

DIAL: 011-46950000; +919582645245

AVG MEAL FOR TWO (SANS ALCOHOL): Rs 2,000+++

WHEN Cavalli Caffe (the 'ff' is deliberate!) opened last year, next to the flamboyant silver-haired Italian designer's boutique at DLF Emporio, people joked that it got as many diners in a day as would fit into the monogrammed stretch limo that had ferried Roberto Cavalli to the launch party in the glittering presence of Bollywood's young celebs led by the towering Sonam Kapoor.

Split into two sections--one in the luxury mall's atrium and the other inter-connected with the store, with crystal lamps, floor-to-roof mirrors, zebra-print sofas and chairs, and framed black-and-white photographs of Cavalli schmoozing with international stars, the Caffe was at once perceived to be overpriced and too snobby for regular diners.

Its misfortune was compounded by its location next to Cha Shi, whose wholesome South-East Asian street food, sensible pricing and accessible style made it an instant hit. The Caffe's indifferent menu and Cavalli prices did it in -- in our picky city, the only way you can make a restaurant successful is by serving good food. People pay for taste and not for an international celebrity's licence fee.

The new menu has the power to bring life back 
to Cavalli Caffe, whose bright and fashionable 
decor hadn't been getting people to come in 
and dine. Image: Shekhar Yadav/Mail Today

The restaurant's owner and promoter of a number of luxe brands, Manav Gangwani, was quick to read the writing on the wall and at once drafted Vidur Parashar, formerly famous for Circa 1193, the restaurant that met with a premature end even though it served honest-to-goodness Pan Asian cuisine with an international twist. Parashar took up the challenge, though he knew he would have to work hard to convince Roberto Cavalli's chefs that tweaking their menu was important to get the crowds that the Caffe needed to post decent-enough financial results. In this monumental effort, Parashar was aided by Jatin Mallick of Tres, who, in his capacity as independent expert, convinced the Italians that the menu was badly in need of an overhaul.

The Caffe's new menu is not only miles ahead of its predecessor, but also gentle on the pocket, with most dishes priced between Rs 200 and Rs 500, the notable exceptions being the Sweet Lobster Linguine (Rs 1,000) and the Lasagna Tradizionale/Tagliatelle Amatriciana (Rs 700 each). It has more items in the 'Cavalli International Specials', including melt-in-the-mouth chicken shawarma that'll make you ask for a repeat and a soul-satisfying, soupy tom kha, which has been renamed Oriental Meal in a Bowl keeping in mind the restaurant's global credentials. It took the burrata, or mozzarella with cream inside, with nothing more flashy than cherry tomatoes and a hint of balsamico to give it company, that convinced me the menu had indeed been turned around. And the burrata, oozing cream like a god dropping manna from heaven, had been sourced from saddi Dilli's Flanders Dairy at Brijwasan.

I was eating in the company of Atul Sikand, whose Facebook recipe-sharing group, Sikandalous Cuisine, has become a phenomenon with 10,000 members (and counting). It's very difficult to make him happy, but Atul was as pleased as punch, especially after we spooned up the last drop of the Crema di Pomodoro, a hearty tomato soup served in a hollowed-out loaf of bread -- old-fashioned but wholesome. Next on the agenda was the Beetroot Vinaigrette with feta and arugula (rocket), a much-abused salad that could have stayed that way, but it was actually a delight for the senses. The portion of Cavalli Burger (our choice was chicken) came in as two delicious sliders, with the juicy chicken patty encased in a slightly crunchy breaded batter. And the thin-but-not-paper-crust Margherita Pizza that arrived thereafter blew us away with its sauce, which finely balanced sweet and tangy -- it is apparently not taken out readymade from a bottle, but made in the kitchen with Italian canned pelati (peeled) tomatoes that you'll find in plenty at INA Market.

A regular mortal would have stopped here, but as Atul and I were on a serious tasting mission, we ordered the burrata ravioli with burnt butter and sage -- the description on the menu said it was "divinity on plate" and we had to agree with it wholeheartedly, despite the patent immodesty of the declaration. The burnt butter just did it! The sweet lobster linguine was yet another temptress and it justified its price with the chunks of lobster in it. Our final dish was the Oriental Meal in a Bowl -- the creamy, soupy tom kha with chunky shrimps was just what we needed to prepare ourselves for the grand finale: airy hot chocolate foam sitting atop a rum granita.

The hot-and-cold sensation was just what we needed to be convinced that the new Cavalli Caffe menu not only has depth, but also quality. With it coming back to life (I hope it gets the numbers), the DLF Emporio atrium is now a complete dining experience.

Circa 1193 Co-Promoter Vidur Parashar Gives Cavalli Caffe Menu New Edge & Easier Pricing

The robust Crema di Pomodoro soup served
in a cavernous loaf of bread made me fall in
love with Cavalli Caffe's new menu instantly

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

REMEMBER Olive Bar & Kitchen’s promoter AD Singh telling me that he celebrated his wife’s birthday at Circa 1193, the restaurant next to his in the shadow of the Qutab Minar in Mehrauli,I  because he knew the food matched the stunning ambience.

It’s a pity that the restaurant that served Pan Asian cuisine with modern European flair and made Achal Aggarwal a star — the chef thereafter was in the opening team of Megu at The Leela Palace and is now going up the corporate ladder at Hyatt International — had to shut shop. I got to know the man behind the show, Vidur Parashar, who left a comfortable family business to pursue his passion for food, and I felt bad for him, and also realised that good intentions don’t always translate into success.
Vidur and his business partners sold the sprawling Circa 1193 plot to Gaurav Goenka, managing director of the Mirah Group, who has made big investments in the restaurant sector. Goenka, in turn, is said to have sold the plot to a third party.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I met Vidur outside DLF Emporio at Vasant Kunj a couple of weeks back with Manav Gangwani, fashion designer and promoter of international luxe brands. Vidur said to me he was overhauling the menu of Cavalli Caffe, the international restaurant venture of the famed fashion mogul, Roberto Cavalli, which did not take off at the DLF Emporio lobby despite its lineage. People complained it was too expensive and that the food was regular. I thought it was quite a challenge because I had never seen any soul at Cavalli Caffe, whose plight was made worse by the neighbouring Cha Shi, whose basic but unfailingly good South-East Asian fare ensured a full house day after day.

A photomontage by Atul Sikand, the man
behind the Facebook recipes group,
Sikandalous Cuisine, of the food
served at Cavalli Caffe

I had my second big surprise yesterday when Vidur invited me to sample the new menu he has put together with his executive chef, Kapil Sethi, for Cavalli Caffe. Starting from you-can’t-stop-eating-it Burrata and a robust Crema di Pomodoro soup served in a cavernous loaf of bread to the Burrata Ravioli with burnt butter and sage and an unforgettable Sweet Lobster Linguine, the menu is sizzling with must-have dishes. Add the thin-crust pizza with artichokes, spinach, zucchini and onions on a real tomato base, the seductive Chicken Shawarma, the full-bodied Tom Kha with plump prawns and the unmissable Hot Chocolate Foam with Rum Granita, and you have a symphony for the senses. The beauty of it is all is that the prices (minus taxes and 10 per cent service charge) range from Rs 300 to Rs 600 (with the Sweet Lobster Linguine being the only exception at Rs 1,000).

Vidur clearly has steered the restaurant in the right direction, with Manav providing him able support, besides giving the Tom Khan and Hot Chocolate Foam the respect they deserve. The new and improved Cavalli Caffe is back in the reckoning. Give it this week to roll out its new menu and you’ll have a good reason to visit it over and over again.

Top Airport Retailer Opens Delhi’s Prettiest Wine Shop at DLF Emporio

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

Buddy Retail, operator of Liquor World at T3 Domestic
Arrivals (above), has opened The Cellar at DLF Emporio

DELHI HAS just got it prettiest liquor shop next to the ever-popular Set’Z restaurant on the top floor of the DLF Emporio in Vasant Kunj. Named The Cellar, the shop, by thinking vertically, makes the best possible use of the sliver of space that it operates out of — and it has all the weighty wines of the world (from the portfolios of Brindco International, operated by Aman Dhall, India’s most successful wine importer, and of Moet Hennessy) as well as Diageo’s impressive single malt collection tastefully highlighted in niches on the store’s glass wall.

The Cellar comes with impressive lineage. A brand of Buddy Retail, a leader in the airport retail and food court business, The Cellar will eventually have over 300 labels of non-wine alcoholic beverages, including categories such the Peruvian pisco and Brazilian cachaca, which are hard to find in India but are getting increasingly popular among the young.

The best-known outlet of Buddy Retail is Liquor World, which you see as soon as you arrive at the Indira Gandhi International Airport’s T3 Domestic Arrivals. Incorporated in 2003, the company is the brainchild of Delhi College of Engineering-IIM (Bangalore) alumnus Amit Arora, who’s its CEO and Managing Director. Before setting up his own company, he held leadership positions in Infosys, Johnson & Johnson, GM, Reliance Retail, Merrill Lynch and Halliburton. Ankur Mahajan, Arora’s business partner, is a well-known in the automobile retail business for operating GM, Chevrolet, Hyundai and Honda dealerships across northern India.

The Cellar, which incidentally was also the name of a very popular Connaught Place discotheque in the 1970s, is Buddy Retail’s first foray outside airports, where we will see a bigger presence of it as a result of the company’s pan-India (minus Delhi) alliance with the Dublin-headquartered duty-free organisation, Aer Rianta International. Buddy Retail’s website informs us that the company plans to notch up a turnover of $120 million from this business vertical in FY2013-14. Its Liquor World franchise now operates at T3 Domestic Arrivals, T1A and T1B (Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai), and Goa’s Dabolim Airport. The store will also open soon at two Delhi Airport Metro stations, T1C Arrivals at the IGIA and T1B Departures at the CSI Airport, Mumbai.

Buddy Retail’s other businesses in airports includes food courts and concessionaires operated in collaboration with Pizza Hut, KFC and Costa Coffee’s Indian franchisee Devyani International, the electronics and accessories store Gadget Point at T3, and the Gourmet Select retail outlet, also at T3, selling snacks, beverages and confectionary. The Cellar, though, is Buddy Retail’s prettiest store with a selection that would make any connoisseur bring out his wallet.