SUNDAY BRUNCH WITH A TWIST: The Four Standalones Who Stand Out in the Crowd

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

WE HAVE gotten used to a Sunday brunch philosophy that deifies excess -- even the central idea of a brunch, which is an extended breakfast, has been re-defined to mean an endless, excessive lunch. Just about everything a hotel or a restaurant has to offer is laid out on buffet counters for guests to tuck into, with endless accompanying pours of bubbly and martinis, the dishes getting replenished as they get consumed. It's almost like an industrial assembly line, though no one minds, because all of us believe we are getting our money's worth. But are we?

Ask people in the food and beverage business and they'll say brunches are designed keeping in mind the limitations of the human appetite. It is not possible for regular people, unless they have unimaginably stretchable stomachs, to digest more than 250-450gms of food per meal. The 'industrial brunch' therefore lets you delude yourself into thinking you have endless choice, although you eat only what you would normally do and pay as you would for a regular meal on any other day that you choose to patronise the establishment. Fortunately for the dining public, restaurants across cities are moving away from the predictable and pumping new life into a Sunday habit that is getting hugely popular in the metropolitan cities.

CHEZ NINI

WHERE: 79 & 80, Meher Chand Market, Fourth Avenue Road, Lodi Colony, New Delhi

WHEN: 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

PER PERSON: Rs  2,500+++ (unlimited cocktails from the menu); Rs 2,000+++ (sans alcohol)

CALL: (+91-11) 9650257451

My favourite fish burger served
on a sourdough bun with okra
fries, tartare sauce and
salsa verde

CHEZ NINI's Sunday brunch goes against the paisa vasool mindset by letting each guest order one dish at a time from the menu of the day. It means you can have an endless a la carte meal delivered at your table, and wash it down with the abundance of sangrias and smoothies, spiked with dates and honey, or get awakened by the aroma of the Blue Tokai coffee blend from Coorg roasted exclusively for the French and fashionable Chez Nini. As your red wine sangria gives you an early afternoon alcohol rush, ask for the Watermelon Salad, loaded with creamy feta and grated hazelnuts, then move on to the French Onion Soup that comes with a blob of Himalayan gouda sitting on a crispy toast, and call for the Soft Poached Eggs served on a bed of sauteed spinach, bay leaf foam and crispy onion. The portions are generous.

With your hunger temporarily assuaged but not your curiosity, order the Eggs Benedict that come on gluten-free brioche, generously lashed with hollandaise and accompanied by seared slices of pork belly (divine!). Or go for the Rosemary Pumpkin Pasta Au Gratin, which is a tribute to the umami powers of parmesan. Or, better still, settle for my favourite: Fish Burger served on a multi-grain sourdough bun with okra fries, tartare sauce and salsa verde. Each dish comes with a twist, on wooden platters in diverse shapes, cooked a la minute and served at carefully calibrated intervals.

DIVA KITSCH

WHERE: D-17, First Floor, Defence Colony, New Delhi

WHEN: 12 noon to 4 p.m.

PER PERSON: Rs 1,850+++; add Rs 1,200+++ for unlimited sparkling wine, beer and cocktails

CALL: (+91-11) 40648861

EVERYONE loves Eggs Benedict, but what if the hollandaise comes spiked with Penang curry? That's the Diva Kitsch touch to the Sunday brunch. It's different because it doesn't complicate life -- and comes with an assured supply of endless prosecco. Let the Italian bubbles tease your palate and build up anticipation as you await the steady procession of dim sum being directed towards your table -- my favourites are the ones with Chinese greens and water chestnuts, wild mushrooms, chilli pork and the heavenly five-spice beef.

After you've had your fill of dim sum, you are invited to choose one of the many mains list out on the page-long menu. Eggs Benedict apart, you could opt for the breakfast platter with three eggs cooked in three different ways, or look at life beyond eggs -- check out the flavourful Udon Noodles and Laksa Curry, or the Pumpkin, Water Chestnut and Litchi Curry with unpolished rice (believe me, you'll love it!), or the Spice Chicken Roulade served with sake-drunk noodles, or the Asian-Style Beef topped with a fried egg, served (here's the twist) on a flaky Malabar parantha. The dessert platter is a temptress and like everything else, comes with a twist. Anyone for jaggery creme brulee? You can only get it at Diva Kitsch!

INDIGO

WHERE: 4, Mandlik Road, Apollo Bandar, Colaba, Mumbai

WHEN: 12 noon to 4 p.m.

PER PERSON: Rs 2,100+++ (with alcohol)

CALL: (+91-22) 66368981 / 80 / 99

YOU CAN'T talk about Sunday brunches and not mention Indigo, the original purveyor of the idea about a dozen years ago. Yes, it's a chafing dish brunch, so you may wonder what makes it special, but it has atmosphere (who can beat Indigo's ambience and then there's a live jazz band), it has class (unlimited pours of Billecart-Salmon champagne and not your everyday supermarket brand), and it offers variety (the small plates and bowls keep changing every Sunday and the entrees are cooked a la minute). The dishes are not your usual brunch kind, though you can't miss the Eggs Benedict or the long-time favourite -- Create Your Own Omelette!

My favourites among the entrees: Seared Mushrooms, Spinach and Gruyere Lasagne with charred tomato sauce; Risotto with Prawns, Squids and Mussel with olive tapenade; Smoked Scarmoza, Pinenut and Sun-Dried Tomato Ravioli with chive cream and braised greens; and Chili and Garlic Linguini with Leeks, Fennel and Capers. Sadly, you can only have one, but no such portion control applies to the grills, so go for the Cracked Cumin Rubbed Grilled Chicken, Peppered Minute Steak With or Without Fried Egg, or Cilantro Rubbed King Prawns with Wasabi Dressing (the vegetarian options don't look that exciting, so I don't want to be held accountable for them!). It's impossible to have a disappointing Sunday at Indigo.

OLIVE BAR & KITCHEN, MAHALAXMI

WHERE: Amateur Riders Club, Mahalaxmi Race Course, Mumbai

WHEN: 12 noon to 4 p.m.

PER PERSON: Rs 1,850+++ (with alcohol); Rs 1,500++ (sans alcohol)

CALL: (+91-22) 33487711

Olive Mahalaxmi now has a
Guppy by Ai pop-up every
Sunday, introducing citizens
of Mumbai to the specialities
of Delhi's much-loved
Japanese restaurant

I CAN'T think of a more romantic setting for a laidback Sunday brunch that does justice to the grand vision of Guy Beringer, who recommended the practice as an antidote to Sunday morning hangovers in his 1895 essay unimaginatively titled Brunch: A Plea. Located in the serene, leafy expanse of the Amateur Riders Club at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse, away from the crush of humanity and the rush of ceaseless traffic, the restaurant seems straight out of the Italian countryside. And you get to spend an afternoon next to a stable of purebred horses.

Complement the rustic look with the sense of mystery and anticipation that a pop-up restaurant brings to a venue. For some time, Olive Mahalaxmi has been playing host to the food and charms of Goa's Greek taverna, Thalassa, and its owner-chef Mariketty Grana was lavishing on Mumbai her brand of "cooking (and feeding) with love". This lure of freshly baked pita bread, crumbling feta, gyro wraps packed with cured meats, moussaka and tender roast lamb made Olive Mahalaxmi the go-to place for every bon vivant who either lives in Mumbai, or passes by. Come August, and the vacuum left by Thalassa will be filled up by Olive founder-partner AD Singh's youngest brainchild, Guppy by Ai, the Japanese restaurant that has wowed Delhi with its California rolls, minute steak tuna tataki, signature pork belly, black cod with miso and wild mushroom gyoza. These temptresses will ensure Olive Mahalaxmi's tables are cleaned up by brunchaholics almost as soon as they are replenished. Dig in!

This article first appeared in the August 2014 edition of BT More, the monthly lifestyle section of Business Today. Copyright: Living Media India Ltd.

Get Ready to Welcome Indigo Deli at Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, But What Happened to Indigo?

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

Mumbai's star restaurateur,
Rahul Akerkar, has not had the
smoothest of starts in Delhi,
but he's hoping to make up
for lost time and keep his
staff morale intact by launching
Indigo Deli at the Ambience
Mall, Vasant Kunj

IT'S A PITY most people assume that Indigo Deli, which is formally opening tomorrow (May 30) at the Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, is Indigo Delhi. If Mumbai's star restaurateur, Rahul Akerkar, had the freedom to act according to his Delhi expansion plan, he was to launch Indigo, the restaurant that's won every award and accolade possible, sometime in mid-January.

He was to make a grand opening at the urban renewal project, an arts and entertainment space that was to have transformed what used to be an open drain opposite the Hyatt Regency, in the shadow of Netaji Nagar. And he was to roll out Indigo Deli, starting with the second floor of Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj, in the space formerly occupied by Zambar, only after Indigo settled down as "a 'back-to-basics' address that will serve up eclectic modern European fare, coupled with an expansive bar and a private dining section". Indigo Deli will be next door to Pizza Express, which is the next high-profile opening to watch out for at Ambience Mall.

But for some mysterious reason, the area, which was blessed by the Sheila Dikshit government and is being developed by the father-and-son duo of Sanjeev and Samegh Batra, has been in suspended animation ever since Dikshit got a drubbing in the Delhi Assembly election, even though Delhi Metro has been constructing buildings next door at a frenetic pace. Was the previous government's showcase project not a priority for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) dispensation that followed? If that were the case, why did Lt-Governor Najeeb Jung not push it after the fall of AAP? No one is ready to share the real story.

"You know how officials work," was Sanjeev Batra's first response when I asked him about the delayed project. "But we will be up and running in a month," he added. Batra has been the man behind such significant heritage rejuvenation-cum-restaurant development projects at Mehrauli such as Olive Bar & Kitchen and The Kila, where blueFROG has re-opened, though after giving up the associated cafe and restaurant spaces.

Batra said that when it became clear the urban renewal project wasn't taking off according to the time-table they were working on, Akerkar came to him and shared his desire to launch Indigo Deli before Indigo. He had hired staff for Indigo and they had been trained in Mumbai, but they had no restaurant in sight, which was clearly a dispiriting prospect. He had to do something to retain his staff, which was why he fast-forwarded Indigo Deli, which is best known for its salads, burgers, sandwiches and ice-creams, and of course, its delicatessen.

"I feel a tinge of sadness, but when Indigo finally opens opposite the Hyatt Regency, the grandness of the setting and the cuisine that has given the restaurant its share of international acclaim will have their desired effect," Batra said, striking a hopeful note. For the sake of the city, we wish him luck! Delhi deserves an Indigo, as much as it can do with an Indigo Deli. Neighbouring Mistral's Mayank Tiwari has serious competition on his hands and even Chili's may experience some loss of lustre.

Tonino Completes Decade Under Chef Suman Sharma; Cafe Tonino Brand Next on Owner Parmeet Sawhney's Agenda

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

On Friday, March 28, celebrated its tenth
anniversary with a party that featured its
signature delicacies on an evening that
had turned cool after a sudden shower

THERE ARE some restaurants that deserve to be around, that never go out of fashion even if they advance in age. Tonino is one of them. It's not what we call a top-of-mind restaurant, a conversation starter like the Indian Accent or Chez Nini, but it's a hardy perennial, which never ceases to surprise you each time you visit it. I am happy to report Tonino has turned 10 at the same Andheria More location where it started in 2004. And its owners, Parmeet and Simran Sawhney, is ready to roll out a Cafe Tonino chain nationally to make the restaurant's most popular dishes available across India at what he calls "economical price points".

It was in 2004 that I first Parmeet Sawhney, his sister Simar Duggal, who was a ramp scorcher and a regular on the front pages of HT City, which I used to edit, and Chef Suman Sharma, whom I had known because of his association with the Indian Culinary Forum from its formative days, at a picture-perfect restaurant that looked exactly like a trattoria you'd find in the Italian countryside. It was before the appearance of malls and that part of Delhi was still very much the cow country.

The spot where I spent an unforgettable afternoon that sunny day in 2004 was formerly an Indian restaurant and banqueting space called Pyramids. Parmeet and Simar's family owned the space, which the serial restaurateur Sanjay Khullar, formerly of the ITC Maurya, used to run. Their father, Jaspal Sawhney, an Old Cottonian, presides over a business conglomerate named Eagle Group, which was launched after Partition, and among the many businesses he owns, the Plaza cinema was the one that made me very curious.

Sawhney Senior had bought Plaza cinema from Sohrab Modi, the man known as India's Cecil De Mille, in 1963-64 after the actor-director-producer's big-budget project, Jhansi Ki Rani, bombed. In my childhood, I had spent many a morning watching animated movies produced by Sovexportfilm in the days when Indira Gandhi's romance with the Soviet Union was at its peak; in my callow youth, I would spend many a stolen moment watching Malayalam films with horrendous desi semi-porn clips spliced in (in those days of innocence, even exposed thunder thighs were a turn-on!) or act superior and spend an afternoon trying to make sense of an European entry for the film festival's competition section.

All these memories came back to me as I came back to me as Parmeet, Simar and I gorged on the food that Chef Sharma, who recently won the National Tourism Award 2012-13 for Best Chef, kept dishing up in rapid succession. I especially remember the pizza. It was the first time I had thin-crust pizza and I just loved it. And I also discovered insalata caprese, the ageless Italian salad with lettuce, tomatoes and mozzarella. In the course of the conversation, I learnt that Parmeet had made his F&B foray in 1995 with the Pyramids restaurant at Roshanara Road, near the historic club where the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was born. His love for food and beverage must be programmed in his genes. Plaza, after all, was famous once upon a time for its cold coffee!

Today, ten years later, I spent a good 15 minutes talking to Parmeet and asked him a question I should have asked 10 years ago. Why is the restaurant called Tonino?  Parmeet, whose leather business first brought him in contact with Italy and its cuisine, said the restaurant is named after Tonino Generale, a restaurateur from Napoli, whom he had befriended 15-16 years ago at a place named Garlasco in Pavia to the north of Italy.  Tonino, the man, is an acclaimed chef back home because he keeps winning pizza-making championships and it is under him that Chef Sharma, who's been the long-time general secretary of the Indian Culinary Forum, has perfected his skills.

"Italy seems to be my lucky country," Parmeet said. Building television and radio stations is among Parmeet's many business and it brings him in touch with businessmen and designers in Milan. With the help of these friends and business associates, Parmeet has ensured that Chef Sharma get to go at regular intervals to hone his skills and study new dishes at restaurants across Italy -- "restaurants where no one gets access." In the last ten years, as a result, Tonino's menu has kept evolving to reflect Chef Sharma's travels to Italy.

I asked Parmeet what happened to Piccadelhi, an innovative food court that he had opened at Plaza around the same time as Tonino (a little after Eatopia at the India Habitat Centre). He said he had to shut it after its operator, Rahul Bhatia, who was a tour operator and restaurateur before he launched IndiGo, scripted his remarkable success story and had no mind space for the project. Well, you gain some, you lose some. Tonino's consistent success has definitely been a gain for Parmeet and Simran.

Gaggan's is Asia's No. 3 & Continent's Best Indian Restaurant; Indian Accent Rises 12 Notches, But At No. 29, Behind Bukhara's No. 27

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

WHEN I last met Gaggan Anand, the high priest of Progressing Indian Dining, at his namesake restaurant in Bangkok last year, he said it was his dream to reach the top of the World's 50 Best Restaurants -- in the footsteps of his icon Ferran Adria, at whose laboratory he had mastered the techniques that make his kitchen special. He was then at No. 66 on the hallowed world list -- the only Indian restaurant to make it to that pantheon of greats -- and I thought he had a long way to go.

The winners pose for the photo-op on the Asia's 50 Best
Restaurants awards night at Capella Hotel in Sentosa,
Singapore, on Monday, February 23.

Not anymore. Gaggan, a Kolkata-born Taj alumnus who made Bangkok his home in 2007, is today at No. 3 of the Asian's Best 50 List, which was unveiled at a glittering awards ceremony at the Capella Hotel in Sentosa, Singapore, on the night of Monday, February 23. He's up by seven notches from his 2013 ranking, next only to the list leader, Australian expat David Thompson's Nahm (also in Bangkok), and the No. 2, Yoshihiro Narisawa's eponymous Tokyo restaurant. That makes Gaggan's, without doubt, Asia's Best Indian restaurant.

That's also where the good news ends. For, India's Best, Bukhara at the ITC Maurya, figures 24 notches below Gaggan's, at No. 27. And Indian Accent, which is the closest to Gaggan's in style and deserving of a far better ranking, is at No. 29, thankfully up by 12 notches from its No. 41 in 2013. I still cannot fathom how you can have Bukhara, the last outpost of predictable dining that hasn't changed as long as Mount Everest has been around, Gaggan's, Indian Accent, Nahm and Narisawa on the same list.

I also wonder why Zorawar Kalra's Masala Library (Mumbai), which is Indian Accent's most serious challenger, Abhijit Saha's Caperberry (Bangalore), Rahul Akerkar's Indigo (Mumbai), the magician Vikramjit Roy's gastronomical laboratory, Pan Asian at the ITC Grand Chola, Chennai, or the brilliant Mickey Bhoite's creative playground, Le Cirque at The Leela Palace, New Delhi, not on the list. The Indian jury seems to be terribly out of sync with the country's changing reality, or it's too five-star-centric, that too stuck between ITC and Taj.

India is represented by six mostly uninspiring restaurants -- Dum Pukht at ITC Maurya, New Delhi (No. 30), which has lost its creative sparkle; Varq at The Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi (No. 32), which has quietly given up any claims to leadership on the Progressive Indian front; Wasabi by Morimoto at Taj Mumbai (No. 36), which is without doubt one of India's finest restaurants; and the has-been Karavalli at the Gateway Hotel on Residency Road, Bangalore  (No. 40).

India, like a patchy middle-order batsman, has been fumbling in the lower end of the list. Bangkok also has six names on the list, but the rankings of its restaurants, starting with Nahm and Gaggan, are far more impressive. Singapore leads the list with eight restaurants, followed by Japan with seven and Hong Kong with six.

Hong Kong's Fook Lam Moon, the unpretentious traditional Chinese restaurant that opened in Wamchai in 1948, has been the most spectacular climber, going up by 29 notches on a list where most restaurants have slipped. Barring Indian Accent, which has seen its ranking climb, the other Indian restaurants on the list have fallen behind -- Bukhara by one, Dumpukht by 13, Varq by two, Wasabi by Morimoto by 16 and Karavalli by five. The Best Indian Restaurant is now at No. 26, compared with No. 17 (Dumpukht) last year. But Indians at least have the consolation of savouring Gaggan's spectacular rise.

Rahul Akerkar Can't Find Executive Chef for Delhi Because Seniors Don't Want to Take Trade Test

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

I MET Rahul Akerkar at the Hyatt Regency, right across the road from where his celebrated restaurant, Indigo, is opening its Delhi innings by the middle of next month. With his bald pate capping a head brimming over with ideas and eyes glittering with anticipation, Akerkar said the "same thought process" that drives Indigo Mumbai would guide his Delhi venture. It would be food focused and chef driven.

Rahul Akerkar says Indigo Delhi will be
food focused and chef driven, but he
can't find an executive chef to run his
operations here. It means we're going
to see a lot of him in Delhi.

So who's the chef leading the project, I asked, and my question was enough for Akerkar to take off on "how tough it is to find skilled people" in Delhi. He hasn't found an executive chef in the city, which means, as he put it, he and his Executive Chef, Nitin Kulkarni (who has been with him since 1999), are going to collect "a lot of frequent flier miles" by dividing their time between Mumbai and the Capital. "It's tough finding skilled people," Akerkar said. "There's a huge lack of homegrown talent. That is a cause for concern."
He was also surprised by the reluctance of senior chefs to take a trade test. "How else would I know if they are as good as their CVs say they are? Akerkar asked retorically. Trained as a biochemical engineer at Columbia University, Akerkar found his true calling while he was working in New York kitchen to pay his bills. He's therefore not a chef-owner who doesn't believe in getting his hands dirty. And he expects the same work ethic from the chefs he hires.
Moving away from his complaints against Delhi's senior chefs, we got into a discussion of his menu for Indigo Delhi. It will be "mainly modern European with a healthy dose of Asian," he said. "We are quite seafood driven," he continued, assuring me that he has lined up some of the best suppliers in the business. But do 
not expect pomfret on the menu because Akerkar believes (and his words were music to my ears) it's "a very over-rated fish". There will however be "good duck and quail," he assured me, adding "I discovered Vivek Kushwaha much before the rest of the world." Akerkar was referring to the CEO of Gayatri Farms, the favourite poulty supplier of hotels and restaurants. And he kept emphasising that his menu has an equal share of vegetarian and non-vegetarian items.
The Indigo Delhi menu took Akerkar and his team up to three months to develop by listening to each other. "I read, eat and play around with stuff," Akerkar said. "I am learning all the time. I draw upon influences all the time, assimilate them and express them in my own way." Unsurprisingly, you'll find a tandoor in his 
kitchen, where he make a great chicken preparation with tamarind. And the rawas (Indian salmon) dish on his menu is an adaptation of his grandmother's kairi (green mango) curry.
More than anything else, Akerkar takes pride in being creative, in using the best ingredients and yet offering great value for money. "Guess what Indigo's average price per cover (APC) is?" he asked and then answered his own question triumphantly: "It is Rs 2,100-2,200 with alcohol." Explaining his philosophy of menu pricing, he said: "I don't believe in retiring with what I earn from the next meal I serve. Each dish has to be priced at a point that is reasonable. We are in the perception management business. The customer must believe he's getting value. I would rather somebody eats out four times a week and not once a month because it's too expensive."
I asked him about his wine list, which had got him the Wine Spectator excellence award for ten years in a row. "To get the award, you have to maintain a wine list of more than 300 labels," he said. "That's too much inventory. At one point, I had 63 chardonnays on my menu. My financial controller was very upset with me."
Akerkar's current wine menu is organised grape-wise, with the labels drawn from regions where particular grape varieties express themselves the best and then organised according to entry, mid-level and upper-end pricing.
And what does he believe to be the taste profile of the Delhi market? "Assessing people's taste is a very dangerous game," Akerkar said with an air of finality. "Taste is a very personal thing," he added, pointing out that the origin of the name of his company, deGustibus, is in the Latin aphorism: "Degustibus non est disputandem (You cannot dispute taste)." What he knows, though, is that "Delhi is a great market to be in. It is a consuming market, a well-heeled market."
If you go to Indigo Delhi, Akerkar would want you to ask yourself before you pass judgment on his food: "Are the ingredients good? Have they been treated with respect? Does the food sit well on my palate?" His final words summed up his restaurateuring philosophy: "Food must always take you somewhere. It must evoke some memory."

Check out my previous story on Indigo coming to Delhi:
http://indianrestaurantspy.blogspot.in/2013/09/indigo-delhi-opening-to-be-part-of.html

Indigo Delhi Opening to be a Part of Urban Renewal Project Across Hyatt

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.

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.”

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.