City restaurants have made arrangements to screen matches.
As the IPL matches begin to spin magic on the television, cricket fever is palpable among the city fans. So overpowering is the craze for the game among the young and the old that fans stay glued to the television sets not wanting to miss even a single ball of action. However, as most of the matches are screened during prime time, fearing loss of business city hoteliers and restaurateurs have found a novel way to retain their clientele as well as whet their appetite for the game.
City’s hotels and restaurants have made special arrangements for the cricket buffs — which include screening the matches for the entire IPL season to avoid any inconvenience to their diners. Not to be caught out on a silly point, some food joints have taken care to introduce IPL or summer menus to munch on with the sixes and fours!
Owner of Lounge 9, Fahim Ajmeri has created a special ambience for his clients —with nets and green carpets that look like the pitches, all over the place. “The IPL fever is catching up more with the youngsters as we have a full house for the past few days. We have a huge projector screen where we regularly screen all the matches. We are also planning to introduce special menu with munching items and mocktails,” Ajmeri added.
And so is Mirch Masala and Tomatoes, which is all set to cater to his cricket-crazy clients, says CEO Rushad Ginwala. “We have to offer the best to our diners and cricket is the flavour season. We have put up three screens at Tomatoes and two screens at Mirch Masala. We offer them the new summer menu that includes a variety of mocktails,” Ginwala said.
According to restaurateurs, the matches are telecast at such a time when people would like to go out in the evening and spend time with family and friends. If such services are provided by the dining places, it would be convenient for the cricket fans to unwind with a nice interesting match over diner.
Haute Peppers will be screening all the matches that are aired between 4pm to 8pm. “This is the time that the restaurant remains free from diners; so youngsters can enjoy watching cricket together. Surprisingly we also noticed few families dropping in on weekends. A 52 inches plasma TV makes watching cricket a fun experience combined with palate ticklers comprising continental snacks, beverages and desserts,” said Tank, owner. Haute Pepper offers unlimited snacks like vegetable pie, panini, sandwiches, burgers and beverages like tea, coffee and mocktails in cover charge of Rs225.
Rajwadu has organised a separate area for screening the matches on a 56 inch screen. “The area has the capacity to accommodate around 300 people,” says Rajesh Patel, owner of Rajwadu. “We will offer viewers chilled welcome drinks along with some snacks to give them a homely experience,” Patel adds.
Pareskh Desai, director of Flavors thinks that the opportunity is at its peak since it is vacation time and parents would like to enjoy their evening out with kids. “The footfalls increased favourably over the weekends. The offer of unlimited buffet has gone down well with the cricket crazy diners who love to combine a good game with good food,” he says.
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