What The Luxe S1E4: ‘Deepen, Don’t Dilute’ — Serving Up a Cult Brand Steeped in Story with Kavi Thakrar, Co-Founder of Dishoom

“When we create a Dishoom, we always imagine it as an Irani café deeply rooted in an aspect of Bombay history. We then sit down and write a story – a different founding myth – which guides every single detail of that space.” 

And in that sentence you have an insight into why Dishoom is the hospitality success story of the last decade in the UK.Dishoom is long queues of happy people, eagerly waiting their turn to get a table. 

Dishoom is creative and ingenious food in beautiful, busting environments. 

Most of all, Dishoom is a bold, brave idea. 

It’s storytelling that evoques bygone times and exotic cosmopolitanism, that celebrates and shines a new light on Indian culture in Britain, and importantly, that exemplifies and heroes a universal tolerance of different people and fused cultures.

Kavi is Dishoom’s formidable, charismatically humble co-founder, alongside his cousin Shamil, who only got their start in hospitality in 2010, when Dishoom opened. 

Weaving truly fascinating tales of both his life and business, Kavi tells Fred all about Bombay’s beautiful melting pot of culture, the challenge of replicating that in the UK restaurant industry, the secret to success in hospitality (answer: soul) and the importance of deepening a brand with storytelling, rather than diluting it. 

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.

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