Amid exposed bulbs, hanging wires and reams of bubble wrap stands a meticulously set table, complete with bowls of deftly constructed prawn dim sum. A brand new air-conditioner, still partly encased in the newspaper it arrived wrapped in, hums gently from above, gamely combating the buzz of traffic that streams in from a large picture window still devoid of glass.
Nonchalantly picking his way through drills, tiles and tangled cables, a waiter holds out a tray of bright Asian salads. There’s tart pink grapefruit topped with quickly seared scallops: a juicy explosion of bright flavours. And Burmese tea leaf salad, interspersed with crunchy peanuts and toasted toor dal, then spiked with earthy, fermented green tea leaves.
In the centre of it all are young restaurateurs, Japtej Ahluwalia and Nikesh Lamba. Adeptly brandishing chopsticks, they work their way through a basket of translucent vegetable dim sum, after which they enthusiastically get started on a steamy tray of mushroom satay. After 45 days of eating 20 dishes at every meal in an attempt to whittle down their menu, they’re finally ready for the opening of their next big venture: Soy Soi.
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The restaurant is a significant addition to the city’s culinary scene for a number of reasons. It’s Asian street food, with a carefully curated menu put together by the team during a three-week trip across South East Asia, specifically Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam. (The menu will also, however, feature food from Burma.) It’s the first of three openings: A few weeks from now Savya Rasa will launch next door, serving food from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Followed by a contemporary Indian restaurant on Cenotaph Road.
There’s more. Ahluwalia and Lamba have already proved their mettle with Double Roti, which began with an investment of ₹15 lakh, as a little neighbourhood burger joint in Gurugram in December 2013. It quickly proved popular with customers, and attracted the interest of Vimal Kumar (Cloud Nine Hospitality) and Vikram Mohan (VM Hospitality) who came on board as Angel investors. Double Roti opened first in Teynampet, then Neelankarai and Anna Nagar in Chennai. They have also launched in Bengaluru, Visakhapatnam and Kochi.
Mohan, who is a serial entrepreneur with about 10 startups behind him over the past two decades or so, opened Savya Rasa in Pune in 2015 to rave reviews. He then went on to launch Meena Tai, serving Maharashtrian food, and Parsi restaurant Batlivala & Khanabhoy, along with what’s arguably the country’s first Ethiopian restaurant, Abyssinian, in Chennai about two years ago.
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Now, with ambitious plans for expansion, Mohan, Kumar, Ahluwalia and Lamba are merging the restaurants under one banner: Pricol Gourmet. And while Meena Tai and Batlivala & Khanabhoy will close, loyalists will still be able to order their favourite dishes, in updated versions, at the contemporary Indian restaurant slated to open in a couple of months, in a building that will also host Abyssinian.
Over the phone from Coimbatore, where he is based, Mohan, Chairman of Pricol Gourmet Pvt Ltd, says, “We wanted to showcase the cuisines from the lower Himalayan Range, Rajasthan, and Bengal, in addition to Maharashtrian and Parsi food. So we decided on a Pan Indian restaurant. We plan to make it a little more yuppie so it appeals to a younger audience. Traditional food served in a fresh format, like kosha mangsho with Gobindobhog rice. Lal maas with jowar roti, but with a twist. Plated litti and chohka...”
Right now, all their attention is on Soy Soi. Chef Peter Tseng, formerly with Lotus (The Park hotel) and Chap Chay (The Raintree hotel) before moving to Dubai to work with Mango Tree, is back and in the kitchen, cooking up inspired versions of the food he ate on their great South East Asian expedition. “Most of the menu is based on our trip,” he says, discussing how he’s taken ideas and flavours from the countries they visited, then moulded some of them into practical dishes for an Indian audience. “We ate a hearty fish head soup in Bali, which was braised in lemon grass. So I make it here without the fish heads, but by just incorporating those flavours.”
Explaining how they whittled down the menu, Lamba says, “Asian food is so vast we knew we couldn’t do it full justice, so we are focusing on items you don’t generally see on Pan Asian menus, like satays from Indonesia, curry puffs from Malaysia and pho from Vietnam, besides mainstays like red and green Thai curries.” And of course, everything has to be done methodically to create a format that is easy to replicate. Mohan says the next opening is planned for Hyderabad, after which they intend to open 20 restaurants, across the brands, over the next 24 months, starting with Bengaluru, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai.
There’s also a dessert brand in the works, though Mohan carefully states that it is still too early to talk about it. “The machines are in the test kitchen,” he says, adding, “We are looking at creating desserts that are cold, refreshing and therapeutic.”
It’s a long way from flipping burgers in a single, smoky 14-seater restaurant in Gurugram. Ahluwalia grins, “With our first Double Roti, our advantage was the fact that we knew all our customers. As we grow, that’s getting tougher.” Lamba agrees, “For any restaurateur, the most exciting part of the job is interacting with people at the shop floor. That is what motivates you every day...”
The stakes are also significantly higher now. “There is a lot more expectation. A lot more to lose. When we opened in Gurugram, we were not restaurateurs. We just thought we’ll give it a shot and go back to our respective jobs in six months if things did not work out,” says Ahluwalia. “That’s not an option now: we are responsible for about 200 employees...” He adds thoughtfully, “I don’t think of it as being under pressure. It just means we need to keep going.”
Soy Soi launches in the third week of March at 2/10, Gandhi Mandapam Road, Kotturpuram, Chennai. Call 9791555851 for details.