Nirula's history started in 1942, when the city's renowned Connaught Place, a circular colonnade with a Georgian architectural style, was being built.
Certain companies come to represent the character of a city and one such brand is Nirula's. It was founded in 1934 as a family hotel and restaurant in Delhi's Connaught Place, years before McDonald's opened its first outlet in Delhi. Nirula's became the nation's first homegrown fast-food chain, known for its pizzas, burgers, hot chocolate fudge, and ice creams in 21 flavours.
Deepak Nirula, Nirula's founder studied at The Doon School and completed his bachelor of science in hotel management from Cornell University in 1974. He has been recognized for pioneering the fast food concept in India before the entry of McDonald's or KFC in the country. He was listed as a noteworthy food service executive by 'Marquis Who's Who'. He died in 2022.
Nirula's history started in 1942, when the city's renowned Connaught Place, a circular colonnade with a Georgian architectural style, was being built. Two brothers, Lakshmi Chand and Madan Nirula, acquired a large ground-floor location in the neighbourhood and opened Nirula's Corner House, an Indian and continental restaurant. It quickly gained popularity. The restaurant became well-known for bringing several firsts to the city, such as its magic shows, flamenco dances, and cabaret performances.
Things started to change in 1947 when India gained independence. As the number of customers dropped, the family decided to close the restaurant and open three additional outlets in the same space. Among these were the first Chinese restaurant owned and run by Indians, which was in operation for more than 50 years, a contemporary café, and a 150-seat French bistro.
In the years that followed, the family kept trying new things. They opened several more "speciality" restaurants in the neighbourhood, introducing new flavours of ice cream, pizza, burgers, and soft drinks that were affordable for the middle-class Indian community.
Under Deepak and his cousin Lalit Nirula, Nirula's grew to include up to 85 outlets spread across numerous Indian cities. Even though the Nirula family sold the company to Navis Capital Partners in Malaysia in 2006, foodies from all around the city recall it as their first experience with Western fast food.
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 "Who introduced burgers, pizzas, ice-creams to Indians before McD, KFC came to India Deepak Nirula")
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