Doodle while you drink! New restaurant trend taking over Mumbai

A couple of days ago, we attended a play. At the beginning of this month, a city-based author read out from her first book as the audience sat around her. Today, a playwright is going to give a talk. However, for none of these, did we have to trudge all the way to a theatre or to some far-flung auditorium. The play, Bayan, was held at Cafe Zoe in Lower Parel. Author Samah read out from her book Encounters of a Fat Bride at Grandmama’s Cafe at Kamala Mills, while theatre director Zubin Driver will deliver his talk on creativity and theatre today at Todi Mill Social.

Whether it’s an umbrella doodling workshop or a magic show or a stand-up comedy night, these days, it’s all happening within the premises of restaurants. The city’s umpteen eateries have opened their doors to provide an alternate space for performances and cultural events and creating communities for like-minded individuals to come together. And if they end up having a drink or two, indulging in their food and becoming regular patrons of their restaurant in the process, well, who’s complaining!

More than just a restaurant

Preet Sanghvi, Marketing Head, Grandmama’s Cafe, believes that today, restaurants have to constantly work on not just improving their food and service, but also creating unique experiences for the customers to keep coming back to them. Apart from hosting Grandma Tales, where budding authors get an opportunity to share their work with interested readers, the restaurant also recently did a fitness workshop at their Juhu outlet and has monthly complimentary spa services too. “Creating regular, fun experiences/events is a great way to connect with your customers and give them a true feel of your hospitality. Hosting events exposes a restaurant to new guests and helps us showcase what makes us unique,” she adds. Terttulia’s owner Imrun Sethi, seconds the thought. “When people go out to dine and drink nowadays, it is many a times to celebrate, and such events totally add to the experience of it being a true celebration,” he says, adding that they have held art workshops, music nights and pop-up fashion events to provide a wholesome experience.

At Cafe Zoe, where they have recently started hosting a fortnightly property called Cafe Zoe Theatre to stage plays, the F&B experience has been included in the ticket price. “We have always tried to be a place which is more than just a restaurant. So we have done book launches, held photography exhibitions and music performances,” informs Tarini Mohinder, co-founder of the restaurant. 

Just a couple of days before the monsoons kicked off, they held a workshop where an expert spoke about how to maintain your bicycle during the rains. Cafe Zoe also plans to start yoga sessions for their customers in the mornings. Now, that’s something for fitness enthusiasts to look forward to!

Not just food, an experience

Apart from just offering food and drinks, it’s also about creating a unique experience for their customers, which makes them stand out amidst the competition. Pragnesh Rai, owner of Sambar Pub & Kitchen in Khar, believes it’s about keeping the buzz alive around their space. “Restaurants nowadays, thanks to so many options, are no more restricted to having people come over only for food and drinks. These community building activities keep the buzz going about your space,” he says. At Sambar, they have held Spoken Word Poetry and Forbidden Nights where unusual topics are thrown open for discussion, among others.

Rai adds that there is a certain sense of ownership that one feels with the place, if one has hosted an event there. “It’s a win-win situation for the restaurant, the people behind the event as well as the customer,” he says. At Brewbot Eatery & Pub Brewery in Andheri, one can be a part of the curation process, based on poetry, art, comedy, open mic theatre, music, magic and more. “The whole vision behind this collaboration is to provide the people in the area to come to a space and have a great time with food and drinks, and also encourage aspiring artistes to take part in these curations in an open mic opportunity,” says Anand Morwani, Co-Founder, Director and Executive Chef.

It has now come to a point where regular patrons have started expecting their favourite eating and drinking joints, to offer them more than just the F&B experience. At Social, they have hosted everything from a glass bottle-cutting workshop to a coffee-painting workshop to talks with budding writers and filmmakers and more. In fact, at their Khar outlet, there is a separate performance space in the basement called antiSocial, where they regularly host poetry readings, art exhibitions, design showcases and workshops. Raasta Bombay has seen people queue up for Bachata classes and finger painting workshops, while The Bombay Canteen at Lower Parel has given out their space for staging of plays. And if all that you want to do is eat, drink and shop, then Radio Bar’s night market, with artisans, designers and entrepreneurs selling their goods ranging from clothes to accessories and home decor, comes to your rescue!