The Hindu Business Line : Theme restaurants catching on in Chennai

IT'S not just food that they are talking about. Restaurants in Chennai now serve food on conveyor belts and provide reading rooms with masseurs, a far cry from the Chinese and South Indian places that the city boasted of.

In the past one year, the city has witnessed the opening of a large of number of theme restaurants offering a variety of international and regional cuisines. But it is the value-adds that are now catching on.

In May, Mrs A Nina Reddy, Executive Director, The Savera, decided to complement her chain of city-based gyms with a 30-cover restaurant, called Citrus; naturally it had to be one that offered lighter and healthier food.

The investment in the restaurant was around Rs 50 lakh and the company signed on Ms Karen Anand, a food consultant on global cuisine, to design a menu. The little something that was different from the restaurants in other three- and four-star hotels in the city is a waiting room with books, and soon a masseur to give the prospective clients a head massage, Ms Reddy said.

Similarly, AIWO (a Sterling Group company), the first of a chain of fitness centres and health food centres opened in Chennai. The total investment into the chain is around Rs 90 crore this fiscal. These restaurants will have a conveyor belt running around an island kitchen carrying the food in measured portions.

The change was started in the beverages segment. "There was a thirst (for change) in the city," says Mr Sashi Chimala, Founder & CEO, Chimayo Chains Pvt Ltd, the company that started the Qwiky's chain.

Another trendsetter was the Fruit Shop on Greames Road, which opened its first outlet on Greames Road nine years ago. Mr Harris Abdulla, Managing Partner, Fruit Shop on Greames Road, said that though the idea of a juice shop was not original, the way the juices were served was something quite new to the city.

The outlet was positioned as a place where people could come in to unwind, and they were willing to pay a premium for it, he said. The average investment into such a place could be anything from Rs 10 lakh, depending on the real estate, he said.

Talking about the changes in the food and beverages business, Mr Chimala said that the objective was to get people out of their homes and spend money in restaurants. He said that South Indians have been slow to get into the eating out habit. But all that has started changing, albeit slowly, with more families eating out at least once a week.

Another new concept that has found acceptance among the youth in Chennai is the coffee pub. Qwiky's opened the first one five years ago and now there are 22 all over India. Mr Chimala said that coffee pubs are basically informal public spaces to relax - the third place besides home and office where people can just hangout. This concept is popular in Europe, especially in Italy, where there are about two lakh cafes, he said.