Restaurants

A revival of regional cuisine

Kamlesh Barot Director Encore Hotels

By transforming his family business into a successful venture, Kamlesh Barot, director of Encore Hotels, has redefined regional cuisine with a tinge of modernity mixed with traditional grace

His business acumen has helped him carve a niche in the area of regional cuisine. Kamlesh Barot, director, Encore Hotels, started with his family-run restaurant Ishwar Bhuvan in Mumbai, which he converted into Rajdhani in 1989, the first restaurant in Mumbai to serve Gujarati food. This was followed by newer ventures and in 1991, Encore started Revival, a vegetarian restaurant in Mumbai, now rebranded as Fine Dine.

The game plan

The erstwhile Revival was the first independent restaurant to use computers for many operational areas and marketing promotions. Nevertheless, Fine Dine, Barot assures, will also set new trends. "Waiters will take orders on PDAs and kitchens will have a touch screen terminal," he exclaims.

Barot believes that the potential is stabilising in the western suburbs of Mumbai though the central suburbs still hold promise. "It is almost the same for North and South Delhi but in South India, each metro is a virgin location and has good potential," he reckons. His brand of restaurants may be the only mid-size group which has also franchised its brand name and management to restaurant overseas in Australia. "There is scope for much more on this front as it raises the market potential of Indian brands to achieve the exacting standards of international brands," says Barot.

On the horizon

Speaking about expansion plans, Barot says, "Our food chain has already entered into malls, multiplexes, non-metros and food kiosks apart from our core competency of standalone restaurants."

After having tapped the scope in award winning hotels, resorts, food outlets and travel agency business, he says, Encore Hotels is ready to explore these areas both laterally as well as peripherally.

Barot believes…

Barot feels that venturing into malls and multiplexes is the latest trend which companies should capitalise on. He believes that franchising is the way to go as ownership has limitations of having a professional set-up within the organisation. He says, "The pharmaceutical as well as FMCG sector has flourished with the distributor network, so also has the hospitality industry and franchise is the route to tap the potential. The future is to jet-set through the franchising and branching route."