Earlier this month, Virat Kohli’s One8 Commune opened to good reviews in Mumbai. One8 already has outlets in Pune, Kolkata, and Delhi.
To be sure, being a successful cricketer doesn’t mean you’ll be a successful restaurateur. Cricketing heroes, who hit centuries and claimed dozens of wickets over decades long international careers, have tried to break into the food world frequently… but with little or no success. Their prowess on the pitch, doesn’t naturally translate to their food business.
Yet, Virat Kohli is hardly the first cricketer to take the leap into hospitality.
Consider Ministry of Crab by Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. Or Tendulkar's, which Sachin Tendulkar started in Mumbai in collaboration with hotelier Sanjay Narang. The god of cricket also launched a second restaurant called Sachin’s in one of Mumbai’s northern suburbs and in Bangalore. Tendulkar's fizzled out in 2007.
From high rentals to ever-changing trends, there are many reasons why only a few restaurants survive in hip urban centres. And the fact is that fans who stay glued to their screen during their innings don’t necessarily line up at cricketers' restaurant: for every successful food venture, there are half a dozen restaurants that totally and completely bombed.
Why, then, you ask, would cricketers put their hard-earned millions into it? Read on.
Restaurant directory
Virat Kohli is not the first, and surely, not the last cricketer to be enticed by the glamour of the restaurant business.
The "dada" of Indian cricket team, Sourav Ganguly too launched a four-storied multi-cuisine restaurant in the posh heart of Kolkata, on Park Street, in 2004.
Sourav's Food Pavilion ended its innings in 2011. At the time, Ganguly's brother Snehasish said the decision to close down Sourav's was taken as they were not able to devote sufficient time. “Sourav is very busy. I am also busy. We were not getting time to run it properly. So we took this business decision," Snehasish told IANS.
While initially Ganguly only allowed his name to be used for the facility in exchange for royalty, he took over the ownership and management two years later.
Following in Tendulkar's footsteps, Virender Sehwag too launched a restaurant in Delhi’s Moti Nagar in 2006. The vegetarian restaurant called Sehwag’s Favourites did well for the first few months. But then Sehwag ran out of form and the diner ran out of customers. Sehwag not only closed the restaurant but also moved court against his partner and his firm Creative Strides Taste Buds Pvt. Ltd.
One-day International cricket wonder Ajay Jadeja had started an Italian restaurant, Senso, in Delhi with former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri's grandson Diwakar Shastri as an investor. The restaurant failed to make any sense to diners.
The latest one to perish is Virat Kohli’s restaurant Nueva, that he launched in 2017 in Delhi. Unhappy diners weren't the only problem as the restaurant was also stuck by the Covid crisis.
But there are exceptions too. Months after the World Cup win in June 1983, cricketing legend Kapil Dev and his family opened a deluxe hotel-restaurant called Kapil Hotel (now known as Kaptain’s Retreat) in the heart of Chandigarh. The idea was to ensure financial security after his cricketing career came to an end. It worked. His restaurant Elevens’ inside the hotel serves his favourite dishes and also Thai and Chinese cuisines. He also launched another outlet of Elevens' in Patna.
Zaheer Khan’s restaurant Zaheer Khan’s Dine Fine, which started in Pune in 2005, has had a good innings so far. The Indian fast bowler went on to expand his restaurant business in 2013 with Toss Sports Lounge in the same city. Both his fine-dine restaurant and the sports lounge are part of his larger business called Zaheer Khan's Hospitality Pvt. Ltd.
Ace bowler Ravindra Jadeja set up his own restaurant called Jaddu's Food Field in Rajkot on December 12, 2012 - the same day as his maiden Test call-up wherein he was out with the Indian cricket team.
Spinner Harbhajan Singh did a smart thing. He sold the licensing rights to his name as a brand to Franchise India Holdings Ltd in 2009. As a strategic move, the company decided to underplay Harbhajan’s name while starting the chain of restaurants – Bhajji Da Dhabba.
Why, but?
The restaurant business is a passion for some, a retirement plan for others but mostly just another way to encash their brand image. And while opening a restaurant is relatively easy, the hard part is creating one that has lasting appeal.
“Yes, going to a celebrity restaurant might be fun, and fans might come through the doors at least one time just for the star factor, but repeat customers is the name of this game and once the novelty wears off and the star-struck diners leave, restaurants need to rely on their food, ambience, and location to stay afloat. If it’s just a big name and not much else to offer, celebrity restaurants quickly fall off the radar, proving once again that fame isn't everything,” says A.D. Singh, founder and MD, Olive group of restaurants.
“The product should be right," says Ritu Dalmia, owner and chef of Diva in Delhi and Motodo in Mumbai. Food is the bottomline but "product" includes everything, “food, financial viability and clarity about the market”.
The fact remains that the restaurant business is tough and while everyone has to eat, people also have a lot of choices. Being a famous cricketer doesn't mean everything you touch will turn to gold. But failure is not known to faze the famous. Virat Kohli who roared back to form with the recent T20 World Cup has converted 'Gouri Kunj', the bungalow of legendary singer Kishore Kumar into his restaurant One8 Commune named after his cricket jersey number, 18. And for now this Commune seems to have resonated with his cricketing fans.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
