DLF, Don't Kill A Great Idea With Growth That You're Finding Hard To Manage

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

LAST NIGHT, the Cyber Hub, DLF's 'food mall' that's got Delhi-NCR talking because of restaurants such as Made in Punjab, Dhaba by Claridges, Sodabottleopenerwala and Zambar, not to forget Soi 7 and Nando's, ran out of gas. Literally, not metaphorically. Thousands of diners (someone estimated the number to be 10,000), as a result, had to go back without a meal, which must have come as a rude jolt for patrons, especially those who had come from distant parts of Delhi. The water supply too dried up, so what was a bustling Cyber Hub turned into a ghost of itself by the late evening. After the recent excise raids on a couple of popular watering holes at the Cyber Hub that led them to stop serving alcohol in the open areas,  this was yet another round of avoidable bad news.

Gas and water supply problems at Gurgaon's
Cyber Hub follow excise raids on certain
restaurants and compound the problems of the
establishments at the DLF showpiece 'food
mall'. Image: Courtesy of www.ixigo.com
  

Imagine the plight of the people being told in the middle of a meal that their restaurant cannot serve them anymore because the piped nature gas (PNG) supply was playing truant. For a newbie foodie hub, it couldn't have been a greater public relations disaster. The 'perception damage' caused by the episode may leave a lasting impact on the sales figures of Cyber Hub restaurants, which were on a high because of the intense public interest in the venue and its offerings. If that happens, it'll be a sad day for a great idea.

Did DLF not anticipate the volume of PNG and water likely to be used after the Cyber Hub came up? Or worse, did it not care? A food mall initially designed to house 42 outlets, already has 45, and counting (the latest additions being Quiznos, the American quick service restaurant brand famous for its toasted subs, and Spanish Chef Nuria Rodriguez's Imperfecto). And many more, including Farzi Cafe, Smokey's, Cafe Delhi Heights, Amici Cafe and Raasta, are slated to open in the coming months (and DLF, I believe, is charging them higher rentals).

Can Cyber Hub accommodate so many new restaurants without pausing to take stock of the infrastructure? Cyber Hub restaurants, I am told, are paying up to Rs 1.5 lakh a month for their PNG supply and they are not allowed under Indraprastha Gas Limited rules to keep regular LPG cylinders as backup. Those with tandoors can tide over, to an extent, such emergencies, but what about restaurants that don't have this safety net?

When I first put up a post about Cyber Hub gas crisis on the Indian Restaurant Spy page on Facebook, Arun Kumar TR, Zambar's Master Chef, was the first to respond and his posts are heart-rending. His first: "This is not the first time ... Kills the concept ... What do we tell customers? No gas!!!" His second: "It has happened before too! The day we opened ... full house and resulted in a huge backlash! Customers are not interested in explanations." His third: "Tonight all over ... Cyber Hub has emptied out."

Zorawar Kalra, Managing Director of Massive Restaurants, voiced the concern that was yet to be expressed. "This has happened multiple times," he posted. "Made in Punjab is still able to serve tandoori items, but I feel real sorry for my fellow restaurateurs as they end up with nothing to serve and lose sales on one of the most important nights -- Sunday. The cost implications are huge."

If this has been happening "multiple times", what has DLF done about it? And more importantly, does it plan to compensate the restaurateurs who have turned the Cyber Hub into the real estate giant's most successful public venture yet? One of my most ardent commentators, Anurag Mehrotra, who has recently relocated to Atlanta from Gurgaon, said it all when he posted: "Farmers don't get water, factories don't get electricity, restaurants don't get gas. Welcome to India!"

Where Will You Find Soda Bottle Openerwala & The Wine Company?

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

SODA Bottle Openerwala must be the most unusually attractive name that anybody could have come up for a restaurant and AD Singh has done exactly that for his Irani café slated to open at The Hub in a couple of months. But his is not the only concept restaurant that awaits the opening of The Hub, the country’s first ‘food mall’ conceptualised by DLF at its Cyber Park in Gurgaon.

Yo! China-dimsumbros duo Ashish Kapur and Ajay Saini, who have sold over 10 million dim sum at more than 50 locations across 14 cities, are making their first foray into ‘wine dining’, graduating from the mass to the class market with The Wine Company. It will be the country’s first wine-centric restaurant located in a wine shop. You’ll have to buy your bottle of wine and then get your meal paired with it. And of course, there’ll be sangria flowing like water. Kapur and Saini promise to rid wine drinking of the high prices and the stuffiness associated with it. Their price, they say, will be the lowest in Delhi-NCR. It’s nice to know there’s one restaurant that doesn’t want to squeeze the wine lover.

The other notable brands at The Hub will be Stryker, without doubt one of the most successful hangouts in the city, in the avatar of Soi 7; the seriously competing Made in Punjab and Dhaba by Claridges; Canton Spice Company of Baba Ling, the teddy bear-like popular owner of Nanking (in my opinion the best Chinese restaurant in Delhi-NCR); and the redoubtable Panchavati Gaurav, which will be the first foray into Delhi-NCR of the much-acclaimed chain of thali restaurants serving predominantly Rajasthani fare in malls across Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Sangamner (in Ahmadnagar district), Raipur and Jabalpur. Interestingly, it shares the wall of The Wine Company. An unusual act of cultural engineering by DLF! Other names to look out for are Hard Rock Café, Nando’s, Starbucks and California Pizza Kitchen.

The Hub will also have a food court with the usual fare — McDonald’s et al — but the real action will in the floors with the stand-alone restaurants. Gurgaon couldn’t have asked for a better treat and Delhi of course will be digging in.