Turning fiction into reality: Haimanti Bhattacharya's 'Bombay Tales' inspires her restaurant theme

We’ve often seen books inside a restaurant but an eatery based on the concept of a book? Now, that’s something else! Bombay Tales — the book and the restaurant — are Haimanti Bhattacharya’s babies and the restaurateur will soon launch both early next year. With over eight years of experience in the food business, the avid reader and writer turned her attention to the world of blogging, and soon found herself writing a book on relationships. “I am a storyteller,” she tells us, adding that she is waiting for people’s reaction to her debut novel before she brings out another. We spoke to the author to find out how she has co-related the book and the restaurant...

Did the idea of the book come first or the restaurant? 

The book came first. Since I’m in the food business, I would generally take care of the marketing communications. I would write content about the marketing collaterals etc. My friends suggested I start blogging and since fiction and relationships comes naturally to me, I started writing a bit on that. Some of my close friends who read it, suggested I write a book, so I started penning one down, whenever I would get the time. That’s how Bombay Tales came to be.

How did you think of opening a restaurant based on the concept of the book? 

I was already running a brand in Mumbai and then we opened another one in Delhi. But I wanted to do something completely of my own. I wanted to do a unique concept which Mumbai hasn’t seen before. I love food and I like seeing people eat. Even my book is a love story between a food blogger and a restaurateur. It talks of the complicated relationship they share, but it’s also about the girl gaining wisdom about how the food blogging industry works and ultimately opening a restaurant of her own. I was just brainstorming with some colleagues and I thought, ‘why don’t I make fiction a reality?’ The book was already with the publisher when I thought of co-relating the two.

But how does one translate the idea of a book to a restaurant?  

It’s a love story about the youth of today. And no dating cycle is complete without eating and drinking. Secondly, the book talks of the girl’s business, her restaurant, her kind of food etc. The dishes are named after the names of the characters. The foods that are mentioned are very Bombay. What do we like? Colourful interiors and quirky food. But, of course, I have not completely infused the book into the restaurant, because that will not survive. Eventually, people will come to the restaurant because of the food and ambiance and people will read the novel, irrespective of the fact they like the restaurant or not. There is a mild connect between the two which I’m doing out of passion because I do both and I can afford to connect them, but I’m not going overboard with it.