Theme restaurant

Theme restaurants cash in on concepts to sell

Definition:   any eating establishment designed around a concept, esp. sport, time or era, music style, etc.

Theme restaurants are restaurants in which the concept of the restaurant takes priority over everything else, influencing the architecture, food, music, and overall 'feel' of the restaurant. The food usually takes a backseat to the presentation of the theme, and these restaurants attract customers solely on the premise of the theme itself. Though the cuisine is often secondary, many people enjoy theme restaurants because they are fun and unusual

Popular chain restaurants such as Applebee's or Bennigans - despite having a distinct and consistent style throughout their locations - would not be considered to be theme restaurants by most people. Theme restaurants have an instantly recognizable, easily articulable concept that can be summed up in a few words at most, an almost cartoonish exaggeration of an idea. The popular Rainforest Cafe restaurants have the obvious theme of a "Tropical Rainforest". Medieval Times has its theme of "Medieval Europe". The Jekyll & Hyde Club evokes an atmosphere of Jack the Ripper and Victorian horror novels. Some theme restaurants use controversial images, contexts, or ideas. The most notorious of them is Hitler's Cross, in Mumbai India.

One strange but famous theme restaurant in Berlin, Germany is called "das Klo" (German for "The toilet") it depicts the insides of a toilet. Many people consider the Rainforest Cafe to be the prototypical theme restaurant, and the restaurant which kicked off the theme restaurant fad. Theme restaurants may be experiencing a decline in popularity, given the closings of several Planet Hollywood, Jekyll & Hyde Club, and Wilderness Cafe locations in recent years. Theme restaurants often depend on tourist business, since the theme soon becomes stale to locals, and the focus is not necessarily placed on good food and service. Certain tourist destinations such as the Mall of America or Orlando, Florida have better chances of supporting theme restaurants. Theme restaurants are generally common at theme parks, such as Universal Studios.

The father of the theme restaurant, credited as being the pioneer of the genre, was David Tallichet, a Texan who served as a bomber pilot in World War II and who died on October 29, 2007 at age 84. Beginning in the 1960s, he decorated restaurants as Polynesian islands, New England fishing villages and French farmhouses (barricaded with sandbags to protect against German bombardment). His Proud Bird restaurant at the Los Angeles International Airport had headphones at each table so that diners could listen to control-tower chatter. Almost all of his restaurants were in Southern California. His company, Specialty Restaurants, grew to revenues of $185 million at its peak in 1980.

Pioneer of Theme Restaurants Pulled His Ideas Out of the Sky David Tallichet (1922 – 2007)

Years before the Hard Rock Cafe put guitars on its walls; David Tallichet's company dressed up its restaurants as Polynesian isles, New England fishing villages and French farmhouses barricaded with sandbags to protect against German bombardment. At his Proud Bird restaurant in Los Angeles International Airport, he installed headphones at each table so diners could listen to control-tower chatter.

A pioneer of the theme-restaurant concept, Mr. Tallichet was also sometimes called the Indiana Jones of historical aviation for his journeys to remote deserts and swamps in pursuit of warplanes. He eventually built a collection of 120 vintage planes.

Birth of the theme restaurant

Credit for the development of the first theme restaurants goes to Paris cafés and cabarets which opened in Montmartre in the later nineteenth century. They were primarily drinking spots rather than full-scale restaurants but they served food also. Like American theme restaurants today they were built around a concept and created an environment which appeared to be something other than a mere eating and drinking place.

In their early years these artistic cafés had a counter-cultural impetus that in some cases celebrated the revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871 which had been rooted in Montmartre.

That was particularly true of the Café du Bagne (Café of the Penitentiary) established in 1885 by Maxime Lisbonne (shown with waiters), a member of the Commune long exiled in a South Pacific penal colony. Posters on the wall of his café, which replicated a prison eating hall, hailed Commune heroes. Waiters were dressed as real convicts but with fake balls and chains. The place caused an instant sensation when it opened, with patrons lining up outside to get in. Possessed of a socialistic mission, Lisbonne posted a sign in 1886 announcing a free breakfast for the poor residents of Montmartre: “Come, and eat your fill, your appetite sharpened by the knowledge that it was from their [the capitalists] coffers the money was extracted.”

The Chateau d’If’ of the 1880s, possibly an imitator of the Café du Bagne, was designed to resemble the prison by the same name in Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo. Outside it had an imitation drawbridge which stretched from the street to a large oak door, while inside were cells and dungeons. The L’Abbaye de Thélème, with a medieval theme, dressed its servers as monks and nuns.

At Le Chat Noir, the decor was in Louis XIII style, with waiters dressed in the authentic green jackets of the Immortals of the French Academy whose job it was to protect the purity of the French language – the object being, of course, to mock them. When it was established in 1881, Le Chat Noir, which was also decorated with images of black cats throughout, served as a club for artists where they exhibited their work. Its fame spread quickly and it became a magnet for visitors to Paris. (Later incarnation of Le Chat Noir pictured below.)

Many of the Montmartre cafés celebrated the macabre, with paintings and decor whose subjects included infanticide, crucifixion, and assassination, but in 1894 The Café of Death opened, furnished with coffins serving as tables. The police objected to its name and its habit of serving beer in imitation human skulls so its name was changed to the Cabaret du Néant [of Nothingness].

The 1890s marked a turning point at which original owners left the scene, artists stopped coming, bohemianism vanished, and new café owners took dead aim at tourists. Certainly few of the popular cafés and cabarets of the early 20th century had much connection with earlier enterprises even when old names remained. Many felt that the Café de l’Enfer (Café of Hell) exemplified the purely commercial type of enterprise.

The spirit of Paris’s bohemian cafés passed into the United States first in New York City. Au Chat Noir was in business there in 1895, decorated with a wall frieze of black cats. Otherwise, though, it seemed like a fairly standard small French restaurant of the day serving dishes such as cold lobster, tripe, and deviled crabs. Later at least a couple of other cafés named The Black Cat appeared in NY and Coppa’s in San Francisco adopted a similar theme.

Other early theme restaurants undoubtedly inspired by Paris cafés include beefsteak dungeons in New York and elsewhere, as well as tea rooms and cabarets in Greenwich Village both before and after World War I, a prime example being the Pirates’ Den. As in Paris, theme restaurants and cafés rapidly lost any counter-cultural overtones.

History of one of the first theme restaurant – jail restaurant

Los Angeles was host to several jail theme eating/entertainment venues, the first in the early 1920s when LA entrepreneurs were eager to cash in on the popularity of Greenwich Village by creating outlandish eating places that resembled the Village’s. One LA attraction was a coffee shop largely patronized by sailors where the walls were painted to resemble the stone walls of a prison on which patrons scrawled their names. Then, in 1925, The Jail opened on Sunset Boulevard. Each table occupied its own barred cell. Just like in Montmartre of the late 1800s, waiters dressed as convicts — the bitterly ironic yet unconscious American twist being that they were black men.

Within a year the proprietors of The Jail opened a second place. This location, or perhaps the first, became the set for two movies which have subsequently fallen into obscurity: Sweet Daddies (silent, 1926) and Ragtime (1927).

The Jails featured chicken dinners. Diners were furnished with no knives or forks, thus carrying on the beefsteak dungeon’s “caveman” tradition of eating with the hands. In 1930 a newspaper columnist named The Jail as one of the “seven wonders of Hollywood,” along with the Hollywood Bowl and the residence of Harold Lloyd. That honor may have marked its swan song as it seemed to disappear around then.

There were also jail-themed restaurants in other parts of the country. Depression-era Indianapolis had Fox’s Jail House Restaurant (shown above) where the “inmates” ate behind bars, while

Fairfield, Iowa, enjoyed Turner’s Jail Café where, in 1939, Mr. and Mrs. Turner invited guests to Eat (plate lunches) at the Jail!

Believe it or not, the macabre subject of execution has also served as a theme for some eating places, such as The Noose Coffee Shop located across from Chicago’s Criminal Courts building in the 1920s. It supplied condemned prisoners with their last meals and they reciprocated with autographed photos. In the 50s, 60s, and 70s, Tarzana CA had a jokey place called The Hangman’s Tree Café, whose menu cover featured a noose dangling from a tree and the slogan “Jail Fare.” Although it was presumably meant to invoke the Wild West I feel reasonably certain not many black guests chose to accept the invitation to “hang out” there. I almost hate to mention the Taipei, Taiwan, restaurant called The Jail which in 2000 was grotesquely (but briefly, following public outcry) decorated with photo murals of emaciated prisoners of German concentration camps and a sign for the rest rooms that read “gas chamber.”

India's First Bollywood themed Restaurant 'Havmor 70 MM' and '1857' - Colonial themed Restro-Bar launched at Hyderabad

The Ohris Group, a trusted name in hospitality industry in India achieves a rare distinction of becoming the biggest group of themed restaurants in India with the launch of its uniquely themed Havmor-70MM, India's first Bollywood themed restaurant and '1857', Hyderabad's first Colonial themed Restro-Bar at Jalvihar on Necklace Road, Hyderabad. With these two new attractions being added now and thirteen other themed restaurants already in its bowl, Ohris becomes one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in South India.

Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, May 19, 2009 /India PR wire -- The Ohris Group, a trusted names in hospitality industry in India achieves a rare distinction of becoming the biggest group of themed restaurants in India with the launch of its uniquely themed Havmor-70MM, India’s first Bollywood themed restaurant and ‘1857’, Hyderabad’s first Colonial themed Restro-Bar at Jalvihar on Necklace Road, Hyderabad. With these two new attractions being added now and thirteen other themed restaurants already in its bowl, Ohris becomes one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in South India. To announce the two new attractions and celebrate the launch, a Fashion Show by Prasad Bidappa was organised. Also there was a performance by Harvest Moon, an international band which enthralled two hundred plus invited guests.

The ‘Havmor - 70 MM’ is India’s First Bollywood themed Restaurant with five zones viz., Romantic Zone, Action Zone, Comedy Zone, Villain Zone and Vamp Zone informed Mr. Ravi Ohri, Chairman of Ohris’s Group. Each zone is themed in that look and feel. Also featured are full and detailed statues of Amitabh Bachchan and Helen with a lot of retro Bollywood elements including staff uniforms. Table tops are all themed as per the zone. Lots of authentic bollywood memorabilia on the walls such as LP records, Posters depicting Bollywood stars, etc. gives a refreshing experience to its guests.

It essentially captures the nostalgic moments associated with it and some of the most memorable movies will be shown on giant screen of multiple LCDs. The Indian Cinema is incomplete without song, dance, romance, action and treachery. Havmor 70MM has captured some of the epic moments in the form of statues enacting the same, with sections earmarked to enliven the essence of the above facets of Indian movies. Havmor 70MM menu provides a wide range of choices from the Buffet or from A-la-carte. You can chit chat over relishing Chaat-e-Bahar, relish lip smacking snacks, enjoy a meal or two from the menu or relish mouth watering desserts, not to forget its in house Ice Cream brand of Havmor. Havmor is two and half decade old home spun ice cream brand from the Ohri’s Family.

The ‘1857’ is Hyderabad’s First Colonial themed Restro-Bar informed Mr. Amar Ohri, Executive Director of Ohri’s Group It is themed like a Colonial Club reflecting the life-style from the days of the Raj, it celebrates the cuisine of yesteryears. It offers global cuisine and features a Mobile BBQ Grill to grill at the tables which is very unique and unheard before. It also offers multiple types of Beer Towers for the first time in the Hyderabad. The 60-feet long bar has a Newspaper styled menu as well as LED Menu offering Global cuisine. Also launching for the first time Patiala peg menu with Patiala sizes. The interiors are richly done reflecting the life-style from the days of the Raj. Authentic pictures from the colonial times adore the walls of this Restro-Bar with a unique scenic advantage overlooking the Hussain Sagar Lake.

A warm friendly atmosphere with decor emphasizing on the essential character and style reminiscing of the eighteen and early nineteenth century British era. With a stunning panoramic view of the Historic Hussain Sagar Lake with conventional and contemporary interiors in shades of all white with green emanating from one side setting the mood for a crazy dinner with posters, pictures and artifacts reflecting the mood and sentiments of Colonial style.

Eighteen 57 offers an unique dining experience that explores the gourmets of the finest Indian and International cuisine serving authentic and contemporary taste. The Lounge Bar offers an exclusive and exhaustive range of cocktails and mock-tails and of course the finest range of International Liquors.

VIEW FROM EXPERTS-why need of the dayExclusive theme restaurants wow foodiesPress Trust Of IndiaNew Delhi, October 15, 2010First Published: 15:46 IST(15/10/2010)Last Updated: 15:50 IST(15/10/2010)

Be it a lounge created completely out of ice or a cafe that resembles a forest with monkeys and other animals for company, entrepreneurs are devising innovative ideas to create theme restaurants to attract food lovers. A welcome breather from regular restaurants and hotels, the unconventional surroundings of the theme hotels are lending them a distinctive quality.

Remember Mowgli? The lovable character from Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book" makes an appearance again but this time in a restaurant. De Moghleez, a restaurant in West Delhi based on a forest theme also sports other Kipling characters like "Sher Khan" and "Baalu" plastered on its walls.

"Our main aim to select jungle as a theme for our restaurant is to attract children. We often see the same customers every week in our restaurant with their children, who play around while having food," Rajesh Mehra, Manager of DeMoghleez said.

'Culture Gully', the cuisine wing of the 'Kingdom of Dreams' theatre in Gurgaon which showcases food from 14 states of India offers a vibrant space that is an amalgamation of an unique Indian experience.

Also "Samarkhand" in Mumbai boasts of a rich Afghani ambiance, with the North West frontier region as its theme. Even the waiters here dress up in typical Afghani wardrobe, sporting turbans and sherwanis all the time.

Suresh Naik, senior captain (team manager) of the restaurant says, "Indians as well as foreigners love our ambiance. Sabutchooz( sort of tandoori chicken) and Sikanderaan (leg of baby lamb) is undoubtedly our specialty."

Corroborating Naik is a twenty-something Shreya Sareen who believes that the USP of theme restaurants is their ambiance.

"I have been to such restaurants and I like their setting. The way they have been designed is interesting and the ambiance is really good, "she says.

'Rocking Evils' in Pitampura, Delhi is a resto-bar. As the name suggests, its theme is that of 'evil'. Red and Black colours in the decor lend a devilish look to it. Drinks and cuisines of the

restaurant are based on negative attributes and are referred to as 'evil Dreams', '007evils','evils special murg', 'evils chicken drumsticks' etc.

Bollywood too has emerged as a favourite theme of joints like the 'Filmi Masala' in Gurgaon and the 'Bombay Post' in Mumbai.

The common motif in both the restaurants are old Hindi classics and posters of Bollywood icons like Nargis and Raj Kapoor.

Puneet Tayal, co-partner of  Delhi's first ice bar 'Ice Lounge', is all set to tap the Commonwealth games business bonanza.

He says, "We will hosting a series of international acts. The DJs will be from Commonwealth nations so as to connect with the audience of these nations."

With options galore, even customers are ready to shell out their money for getting an exclusive feel of a particular theme.

Monika Jose, an college student who has visited Pind Balluchi in Rajouri Garden says, "It has a very rustic feel to it and it's a village setting you know, and the food is also served in copper haandis. It's very interesting."

With theme restaurants dime-a-dozen, food lovers say they can look forward to a variety of cuisines and  multiple experiences to choose from.

With more and more diners yearning for a break from the urban bustle, theme-restaurants with out-of-the box offering in terms of ambience, cuisine and décor are gaining acceptance.

Now one could chug down timelines and enjoy some burrakhanna of the British Raj, seated in a pullman styled 1850's railway-coach dining restaurant "Sahib Sind Sultan (SSS)", or one could go back to the spartan rock-age interior of "Guhantara", a cave resort.

Food connoisseurs can also have a pick of enjoying flavours from the Chinese woks at "Aromas of China" or usher in a celebratory mood of a wedding at "Jalsa", a restaurant.

"Eating out is no longer just about food but involves the entire experience of enjoying it", says Babita Jayaram, Marketing Vice President of BJN group, a leading player running a popular chain of theme restaurants in the country.

Customer satisfaction of theme restaurant

Theme restaurants were designed to provide customers with not only a meal, but also an entertaining experience. After a rapid rise in popularity in the early to mid 1990s, theme restaurants began to experience a decline in market share. As this segment of the restaurant industry experiences the downsizing of many once-popular brands, it is imperative that investigations are undertaken to determine the causes of this decline. Many researchers have attributed customer satisfaction and subsequent return intent as key indicators regarding the success of a restaurant. Although considerable research has been conducted on these indicators in the service industry, none has focused on theme restaurants in particular. Relying upon expectancy disconfirmation theory, this study adds to the existing body of customer satisfaction literature by examining four theme restaurant attributes (food quality, service quality, atmosphere, and novelty) and their influence on return intent. A total of 172 patrons of three US theme restaurant chains (Hard Rock Café, Planet Hollywood, and Rainforest Café), who were living or visiting Las Vegas, were surveyed in March 2003. Results revealed that customers were least satisfied with novelty. Further, customer satisfaction with theme restaurant food quality and atmosphere were the only significant attributes influencing return intent.

Service encounter of theme restaurant

Along with the increasing requirements of customers on dining experiences, theme restaurants have become a trend in catering industry. This study start from the concrete process of service encounter, especially to the elements of encounter quality in service experience process. The results indicated that the quality evaluation of service encounter process in theme restaurants is mainly affected by three parts, i.e. service environment, service personnel and existence of problem customer. The interactive quality evaluation of restaurant service has positive correlation with service personnel's skill, problem customer's behavior, service personnel's attitude and service environment of the restaurant.

Introduction/service quality

Following higher living standards and vigorous development in the food and beverage industry, consumers have begun to pay attention to environment, atmosphere and personalization apart from satisfying their demands for physical products. Today's consumers are interested in purchasing products and consuming procedures that will bring them spiritual enjoyment and fulfilling experiences. From restaurants with regional flavors like Italian, Japanese or Mexican, i.e. using different theme concepts to enrich food styles and features, to restaurants taking music, gaming, history and sports as themes, various consuming experiences are brought to customers. However, because the prosperous development of theme restaurants makes the competition in catering industry extremely keen, many theme restaurants are in the condition of low profit rates or even negative. In order to solve difficulties and turn the situation around, theme restaurants begin to transfer their attentions to customers one by one, meeting customer demand as well as promoting service quality and standard.

The essential characteristic of theme restaurant service is that customer...

Why Theme Restaurants Fail (and How They Succeed)

Planet Hollywood’s orbit is degenerating. Hard Rock Cafe is falling on hard times. Fashion Cafe is looking threadbare. In an effort to discover why some restaurants fail and why others succeed, E.S.P. put the question to a handful of very busy real estate brokers around the country who specialize in restaurants. Wall Street and its echo, the daily press, tends to look at all failures as a function of cost vs. revenue, and all successes as revenue vs. cost (When the only tool you have is a wrench, everything starts to look like a nut).

While cost vs. revenue is the mathematics of profit and loss, the forces behind the formula are food and service, according to the brokers we interviewed.

Theme restaurants will continue to grow with or without Wall Street’s help.

"If the focus is on dancing gorillas, or guitars signed by Madonna, or whatever, they’re going to have a problem. You have to focus on the food," said John Higden of Higden & Higden (512-343-0418), an Austin, Texas-based restaurant brokerage firm. "People will only buy so many T-shirts or squeaking frogs." Higden recalled that during Bill Clinton’s election campaign, the buzz-phrase was "‘It’s the economy, stupid.’ Well, it’s the food, stupid."

No argument to Higden’s view could be obtained from Thomas P. McCarty of Restaurant Brokerage (303-432-0047) in Arvada, Colorado, or from Paul G.W. Fetscher of the Great American Brokerage (212-557-7272) in New York City, or from Jerry Becker of Hiffman Shaffer Associates Inc. (312-332-3555) in Chicago. Each has his own way of approaching the topic, but all agree that consistently good food and excellent customer service are the only essential ingredients in a successful restaurant recipe.

"The only way you build loyalty is through good food," said Fetscher. "I don’t have to go to a theme restaurant, but I do have a propensity to eat two to three times a day."

"The rumors concerning the demise of theme restaurants are greatly exaggerated," said Becker. "Wall Street investors may have abandoned the restaurant concepts that relied more on hype than on consistent good food. Theme restaurants will continue to grow with or without Wall Street’s help. The well thought-out restaurants that consistently deliver on food and service will be around. Currently, theme restaurant concepts such as Buca di Beppo, Dave & Busters, and Champps Americana, to name a few, fit this criteria. On the other hand, Country Star, Fashion Cafe and Planet Hollywood, who rely on hype and glitz rather than good food, are destined to experience problems or death. Theme restaurants have been around for some time and will continue, provided they deliver on a well-crafted environment, with good food and service."

"The theme concept is a business concept, not a restaurant concept. A chain is a function of finance more than food."

"These places are not known for great food," said Leslie Siben, a restaurant broker with Winick Realty (212-792-2643) in New York City. "It’s very hard to operate with food as your primary concern in what I call ‘stadium dining,’ the 80s concept, which is what these places are doing, catering to the mainstream palate."

"So they focus on the tourist, and the problem with the theme is that they (tourists) get tired of it. Themes don’t maintain a fresh interest for repeat business, they don’t cultivate your mainstay audience, by definition. Then, when you get too big, you become more of an overhead operation. The theme concept is a business concept, not a restaurant concept. A chain is a function of finance more than food."

What is a theme restaurant? Is there any such thing as a non-theme restaurant? E.S.P.’s consulting brokers agreed that, for the most part, every restaurant has a theme it tries to convey to its customers, some more successfully than others. In searching for weird themes, we found a few that haven’t received national attention yet. For example there is Adam & Eve’s, located in a resort called Naked City in Indiana, whose theme is nudity neither the customers nor the employees wear any clothing. Not a candidate for national exposure, but perhaps a limited rollout. Then there is Live Bait, a New York joint that looks like a trip to the rest room will land you in a wood shack with a hole in the floor and a bucket of corncobs hanging on the wall. A Confederate flag adorns one fractured wall, and the menu is 40’s Mississippi sharecropper. Wall Street is not knocking down their door, but maybe it’ll fall off on its own.

Every restaurant, from JoJo’s Pizza & Bar (theme: pizza and booze, know-the-owner casual) to Smith & Wollensky’s (theme: the best steaks in the country) has a theme. It’s in the name, the image and the reputation, if not the decor. If it’s in the food and service too, and they’re a hit, that’s all that matters. The problem arises when the theme is everything and the restaurant is relegated to third-class status or worse. Customers will return the sentiment, and investors will soon follow.

To be sure, there are those in the restaurant business who still believe that there is a difference between a "theme" or "specialty" restaurant and any other restaurant, and that the "theme" restaurant industry is suffering a setback. These are the cost-vs.-profits Wall Street believers like Gaylord Entertainment. This company recently bought out the 49 percent of Wild Horse Saloons it didn’t already own from Levy Restaurants and, in its announcement of that purchase, declared that "the specialty restaurant industry is not in an expansion mode right now." That statement was attributed to Terry London, CEO, who also said, "We view Wildhorse Saloons as entertainment venues more than restaurants..." Indeed, a heavy entertainment and-or tourism draw can make an otherwise bad restaurant financially successful, because it eliminates the need for repeat customers, which is the desired result of establishing good food and service.

"If your customer base is non-repeat," said McCarty, "such as in tourist areas, you don’t have to execute well. In Cancun, for example, you might go into a Planet Hollywood and buy a T-shirt, but not in Denver."

"If your customer base is non-repeat, such as in tourist areas, you don’t have to execute well"

The very nature of celebrity-spawned restaurants creates additional problems with staffing, McCarty said. "The staff attracted is there for the glitter, rather than to provide a good guest experience. They want to hang out there in case the stars show up." Higden echoed that observation: "There was more attention on who showed up at an opening party" than on the food and service fundamentals, at the trendy celebrity bistros, he said.

The industry’s problem now is one of overcrowding in what Higden tagged the "hyper-theme" restaurant genre, or what Fetscher calls "eatertainment" centers. "There are now more than 600 eatertainment restaurants, many of them sharing the same market," Fetscher said. "As much of a fan as I am of restaurants, I don’t know that Landry’s Inc. needs five restaurants in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, or that I need in Myrtle Beach a Hard Rock Cafe, a Planet Hollywood, and an All Star Cafe all within sight of each other." He characterized the Myrtle Beach restaurants as "underperforming, according to reports."

The problem arises when the theme is everything and the restaurant is relegated to third-class status or worse.

Even the cost of building a trendy restaurant, which often runs to $400 per square foot, is not necessarily a factor, if the restaurant’s emphasis is on the fundamentals, McCarty said. "Palamino, The Cheescake Factory, Puccini’s, they all spend $300 to $400 a square foot... Cost is clearly a factor as the sales drop," he noted. "The restaurant business is not rocket science. The most expensive cost you have is losing a customer. If a customer has a positive experience, he’ll tell one person. If he has a negative experience, he’ll tell 10 people."

Wall Street, in fact, can be part of the problem, McCarty agreed. If a restaurant’s focus is on dollars rather than food and service, and the numbers slip a little, then the bean-counters start putting pressure on to tighten up on costs. A deadly cycle is started. "Wall Street tightens the screws," said McCarty, "then, instead of giving a customer a free dessert because of a problem, the waiter has to ask the manager. The manager knows he needs another half a percent profit this month, so he says no, just tell them you’re sorry. Now you’ve lost a customer." As sales decline, the screw tightens further and customer service suffers more. "Then it becomes exponential and logarithmic," McCarty said.

"Another piece of the formula is people," said Higden. "If you’re growing too fast, you can’t grow your culture. You need to recreate the enthusiasm and the corporate culture, and if it grows too fast you can’t do that. Without those factors, the real estate can be brilliant, and you’re going to have to do it again. You have to have passion for food and passion for serving people."

Cost is certainly a factor to investors, Fetscher noted. Investors want to see a minimum return of 15 percent, meaning that "a comfortable ratio is 1.5-to-1 sales to investment." For a mammoth

undertaking like David Copperfield’s in New York City’s Times Square, he said, this may never happen.

"It’s going to cost more to build David Copperfield’s in New York than any other restaurant ever built. Current reports are that it will cost $30 million to turn the key. For this unit to be successful it’s got to at least gross the investment."

"The center area (of David Copperfield’s) will be 100 feet high. A table of patrons will be swept to the top of it, sawn in half and will reappear elsewhere in the restaurant, without knowing themselves quite how it happened. That’s an illusion. The delusion is the expectation of this being a $30 million gross operation," Fetscher said. Good food will help, but it won’t do it all, he added. "With the Joseph Baum/Michael Whitehead Co. involved, I expect the food to be, not gourmet, but substantially above the mark of most other eatertainment restaurants."

Fetscher said the second location for David Copperfield’s in Orlando, Florida, "with a build-out more like $20 million, will have a better probability of grossing their investment."

Design is another critical factor. Fetscher talked about the original Dive in Los Angeles. "It was cute the Yellow Submarine come to life. The Levy Brothers out of Chicago did a very interesting job, especially in developing a submarine menu... But when I went there, there was no one there. It seats nearly 300, but no place you sat did you get a feel for the excitement of having a lot of people there. It was far too fragmented and broken up into areas."

The underwater illusion, which included a very expensive series of "portholes" that were linked video screens allowing a digital fish to swim across one screen and show up in the next. But because of the underwater theme, "there was a blue tone to the lights. In blue light, people don’t look good, and food doesn’t look good. So I’m sitting with 20 people who don’t look too healthy, food that doesn’t look very appetizing, but the fish swims from screen to screen."

"After the first year it grossed $6 million on a $9 million investment, then settled into $5 million a year on 60 percent local and 40 percent tourist business. An astronomical marketing budget of six to 10 percent of gross was spent in order to attempt to continue attracting customers. They just announced the closing of this store. It finally out-grossed the investment, it just took too long to do it."

The new Las Vegas Dive unit, Fetscher said, is likely to do better because it has "more of a central area, better lighting tones, and a dining balcony, so whether 50 or 200 people are seated, the scale is correct and you can see lots more people enjoying themselves. Plus, the Las Vegas unit is 90 percent tourist customers with a strong merchandise component."

In a nutshell, it’s the food that drives a successful theme restaurant.

Major player in indiaKambala Hospitality Services

Our Story

Kambala Hospitality Services Limited was born out of a dream & passion. A dream nurtured over years towards the dynamic industry of hospitality.

The instinct which suggested that things need not carry on the way they are proposed or perceived, practices which are handed down or suggested and that imagination has no boundaries, creativity no limitations.

This ideology gave birth to the enterprise of KHPL. Founded by Deepak Bassi, Managing Director, KHPL was joined by similar like minded professionals to shape the destiny of the new age food company.

KHPL proudly engages itself to the service industry and diverse business’s related to hospitality.

KHPL stands supported by a dynamic and experienced team with a common goal and vision. Diverse experiences come into play to from this amazing conglomerate of talents to spearhead the future enterprise and aspirations. Each department raring to contribute to the making of a common objective, SUCCESS.

Deepak Bassi      –  MD & CEO

Amar Jog            –  Director - Business Development & Marketing

Santosh Rai        –  COO - Banquets

Mahesh Engineer  – CFO

Brand

Kambala Hospitality Restaurants division offers an option of unique restaurants spread over the city of Mumbai.All the restaurants are uniquely themed and styles for diverse entertaining and dining purposes.Ideal for personal / social outings, gatherings, functions and celebrations.

 

Village, the soul of India is promoted by Kambala Hospitality Private Limited (KHPL). Village endeavours to promote the lesser known heritage of our

cultural treasures making it one of the most unique restaurant of its times. The mud plastered walls and characteristics rural finery transcend you into a surreal world of an era

gone by.   

MUMBAIS FIRST PAN INDIAN THEME RESTAURANT 

TRADITIONAL VILLAGE THEME :

A rural village comes alive in Mumbai complete with minute details found only in rural India..

Options of dining on a truck back or in rickshaw, lounge around in the traditional low sitting diwans or feast on the dhaba styles benches.

Leave the modern times behind. 

CUISINE : 

Discover the diverse cuisines of India ranging from Kashmir to Kanyakumari with traditional maharaj’s & chefs. The menus will be changed on a regular basis to offer you the best choices.  

70 DELICACIES :

Scumptious choices ranging from refreshing sugarcane juices to lassis, chaats to Amritsari kulchas, dosas to appams, chole bathure to hyderabadi biryanis, kulfis to the magic of Bengal. Its

an unlimited food extravaganza. 

LIVE ENTERTAINMENT :

Jump into the mood with a colourful Rajasthani folk troupe or a garba, reach your roots through a vibrant Bhangra or a traditional lavani.  

EXPERIENCE :

Perhaps for the first time in Mumbai you can actually show your children what a traditional village means to our heritage.  

CONCEPT :

The concept is of  a ONE TICKET RESTAURANT, where you pay a fixed rate at the entry for adults & children and feast as much as you want on the delectable spread in a vibrant ambience

with your entire family. 

AN EXPERIENCE TO BE EXPERIENCED

The rural wave descends upon the confines of urban senses. A step into a surreal world of make believe. Village comes to life for the first time in the city of Mumbai. Introducing the first ever Pan Indian theme restaurant, VILLAGE, The Soul of  India. Village is located at Kandivili,

Thane and Vashi. 

Village was the first flagship restaurant of Kambala Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. who have launched an entire range of hospitality services indulging in state of the art banqueting halls, outdoor

catering services, restaurants, food courts and hospitality solutions. 

Village, the soul of India is the brain child of its C.E.O. Deepak Bassi who has brought alive an entire Indian village in the confines of a 10,000 square feet restaurant. The piece de resistance is the concept of an one ticket restaurant where you pay a fixed cover charge and then feast on six

food chowkis to your hearts content, appetizers to chaats to main course to desserts. The management boasts of traditional cooks sourced from origin domain to add the authenticity, the masalas and the rare ingredients sourced form the respective native centers. Where the spread is

concerned you are spoilt for choices, the menu is going to be on rotation showcasing all the traditional cuisine of India. 

Detailed to some imaginative interior specs the aromas of an village actually transfer you into a mystical land. The lavish verandah is reminiscent of a thakur’s haveli with a munimji, adorned

with antique and appointments. The raw elements are effectively brought alive with the two trucks and auto rickshaws very imaginatively converted into dining tables. Choose between a traditional charpoi or a princely diwan or just soak in the entire village on foot. There are no

prior table reservations or appointments.

Whats a village without nautanki. Rajasthani maand singers, dance troupes, kutchi ghodis and bhangra performances keep you on your toes to justify the desi ghee diet. Guests are often seen

joining the sangeet mandali after the meals or busy with the chudiwali or the mehndiwala. 

As Amar Jog, Director – Business Development & Marketing, KHPL puts it, “ In today’s times, Village is the route to your roots. This is our honest effort to bring back the glorious cultural

treasures from the soul of India ”

Established in 1981, the Ohri’s group has been a pioneer in the hospitality scenario since its inception. Through constant innovation and consistent growth, Ohri’s today is among the fastest growing restaurant chain in South India.

Ohri’s has established itself as a leader in food court dining. Establishing the first specialized food court in the city it has already won many professional laurels and most importantly the praise and loyalty of its customers. As Ohri’s readies itself for its next evolutionary step of expanding into new areas and markets, it has already laid the foundation to become the ultimate dining experience.Know more... 

  

A Message from Mr. Amar Ohri, Executive Director, Ohri’s Group

It is with great pleasure that I invite you to the team at the Ohri’s Group.

Our vision is "Delighting Guests Each and Every Time" and the goal is to develop and maintain a profitable, well known and highly regarded Ohri’s Group that is reputed in all circles of the community for friendly efficient service and the ability to make the impossible possible.

To ensure the perpetual achievement of this vision, we have made it our objective to obtain and maintain the best personnel possible and to continually offer our guests only the highest quality products and service. Our company recognises that our goals may be reached only with the support of excelling individuals. Consequently, we expect the members of our team to perform on the highest level of which they are capable at all times. It is our smile, our special attention to detail, and our commitment to exceeding the expectations of our guests that will guarantee our future success and prosperity.

Once again, I invite you to the Ohri’s team.

I sincerely hope you will enjoy your new position and I look forward to working with you as we face the challenges of the future together.

Yours sincerelyAmar Ohri

15 of the Strangest Themed Restaurants:

If there’s one thing that all of these restaurants have in common with incredible theme hotels it is the belief that dining doesn’t have to be mundane. From the comical to the sincerely disturbing, strangely themed restaurants have popped up all over the globe, but are most commonly found in Tokyo, Japan. Here are 15 of the weirdest and wackiest themed restaurants in the world, highlighting such gastronomic delights as edible ‘dead bodies’, ‘Spicy Condom Salad’ and feces-shaped ice cream served in miniature toilet bowls. 

Buns and Guns – Beirut, Lebanon

Image via LA Times

At Buns & Guns in Beirut, Lebanon, everything is military themed – from the décor and names of the menu items to the helicopter sounds that play constantly in the background. Manager Yussef Ibrahim says that the theme reflects the mood of the city during Lebanon’s 2006 war with Israel, and that while some patrons may find it disturbing, most are amused. You can order yourself an M16 Carbine meat sandwich, a Mortar burger or a Terrorist meal (which happens to be vegetarian). Displayed at the entrance is the restaurant’s slogan, “Sandwiches Can Kill You”.

Cannabalistic Sushi – Tokyo, Japan

Image via Weird Asia News

‘Nyotaimori’ in Japanese literally means ‘female body plate’, and this restaurant named after the tradition of eating sushi and sashimi off a nude woman’s body takes the concept to a whole new level. An edible body, with dough ‘skin’ and sauce ‘blood’ is wheeled into the room on a hospital gurney and placed upon a table. The hostess begins the meal by cutting into the body with a scalpel and then patrons dig in, operating on the body to reveal edible ‘organs’.

Modern Toilet – Taipei, Taiwan

Image via Fun Fever

Perhaps the best-known strangely themed restaurant is Modern Toilet in Taipei, Taiwan, where hungry customers take a seat on Western-style commodes and enjoy feces-shaped chocolate soft serve in miniature toilet bowls. Toilet rolls are hung over the tables for use as napkins, and drinks come in miniature urinals. The toilet theme continues throughout the restaurant, with ‘WC’ signs hung as décor.

Hitler’s Cross – Mumbai, India

Image via Flickr user Patrix Blogs

‘Hitler’s Cross’, in Mumbai, India, understandably provoked a lot of anger from the community when it debuted in August of 2006. On display was a giant poster of Hitler, and the ‘o’ in ‘cross’ on the restaurant’s large illuminated sign contained a swastika. Just one week later, the restaurant was forced to change its name to the ambiguous ‘The Cross’ and remove all Hitler and nazi memorabilia.

Maid Cafes – Tokyo, Japan

Image via The National Post

Those with maid fetishes and fans of Japanese ‘otaku’ (geek) culture can enjoy a meal like no other at one of the many maid-themed cafes in the Tokyo area, including this one called ‘@home’. Giggling women in cartoonish maid costumes call patrons ‘master’ and pat them on the heads like babies. It’s not about the food here – which is usually overpriced and less than appetizing, like spaghetti topped with ketchup. It’s about the service, which often includes playing games like Barrel of Monkeys (for a fee, of course) and, uh, ear cleaning.

Pitch-Black Restaurant – Beijing, China

Image via Gizmodo

It’s often said that if you take away one or more of your senses, the remaining ones get stronger. That’s the idea behind Pitch Black, a Beijing restaurant where patrons eat in complete darkness. Illuminating devices like cell phones and watches are strictly forbidden, and it’s so dark you can’t see your hand in front of your face. Don’t think you can get away with any funny business, however – the waiters wear night-vision goggles.

Graveyard Restaurant – Ahmadabad, India

Image via The Seattle Times

Being surrounded by coffins while you eat is one thing, but it’s an entirely different matter when they’re occupied. The New Lucky Restaurant in Ahmadabad, India began as a tea stall outside a centuries-old Muslim cemetery, and grew to encompass it over the years. The graves, situated between tables and often topped with candles, and resemble green-painted concrete coffins. One is said to contain a 16th century Sufi saint. Business is brisk, and the owners say that the graves bring them good luck.

Death Themed Restaurant – Truskavets, Ukraine

Image via ContractJou

Image via ContractJournal.com

When a group of undertakers set out to start a restaurant, you know it’s going to be weird. And indeed, ‘Eternity’ restaurant in Truskavets, Ukraine is a windowless building shaped like a giant coffin. Inside you’ll find funeral wreaths, black shrouded walls and human-sized coffins. Menu items include dishes with names like “Let’s meet in paradise”.

The Hellfire Club – Manchester, UK

Image via Top Table

The Hellfire Club, with its gothic décor and creepy theme, might not seem like a likely place to enjoy a world-class meal, but the food here is said to be divine. It’s located in a reportedly haunted 19th century building and resembles a dungeon, with skeletons, coffins and red lights strewn throughout. Menu items include steaks named ‘Kiss of the Vampire’ and ‘Cannibal Holocaust’.

Vampire Café – Tokyo, Japan

Image via Marianne Mancusi

Continuing the creepy, otherwordly themes is the Vampire Café in the Ginza section of Tokyo, where the interior is almost entirely blood red. Guests are ushered down a long hallway with red blood cells superimposed on the floor. Inside, the décor includes heavy velvet drapes, black coffins dripping with red candle wax, skulls and crosses. Many of the meals are vampire-themed, and diners drink red cocktails from martini glasses.

Hobbit House – Manila, Phillipines

Image via HobbitHouseManila.com

Long before the Lord of the Rings trilogy debuted on theatre screens, the Hobbit House was founded in Manila by former Peace Corps volunteer and Tolkein fan Jim Turner. Don’t expect to find the sort of lush Middle Earth scenery that filled the movies, however – what you’ll encounter instead if you stop to dine at the Hobbit House is a staff of ‘the smallest waiters in the world’. That’s right, check your political correctness at the door – this is one group of little people who are okay with being referred to as hobbits.

Robot-Staffed Restaurant – Nuremburg, Germany

Image via Gizmodo

One restaurant in Nuremburg, Germany cut out waitstaff altogether, relying on robots instead. Alas, they weren’t walking, talking robots wearing aprons or anything really fun like that. Rather, it was centered around automation – customers ordered via touch screens, and moments later the food traveled to their tables on a spiral slide. It might have saved diners money on tips, but apparently the concept didn’t go over too well, as the restaurant was not open long.

Mao-Era Red Guards Restaurant – Nanning, China

Image via Trifter.com

You wouldn’t think the Chinese people would be eager to relive the Mao era while casually dining, but patrons at Shaoshan Chong line up to consume local delicacies served by waiters in the Red Guard uniform. The Red Guard was the army unit formed by Mao Tse Tung during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), which aimed to wipe the country free of revisionist and Western influence.

Christon Café – Tokyo, Japan