Really cool new uniforms the Jet Airway girls are wearing these days. At first, the long elegant canary yellow jackets are quite a shocker, but I suppose with Kingfisher taking the upper segment of classy domestic travel, everyone is going to have to do something to upgrade.

Last weekend I was in Mumbai to have a look at what’s new and happening. It’s been a while since my last visit and although a Calcuttan at heart, you can’t help but love the vibrancy of the place, so much happening and so much money going over the counter. My wife Pinky and I both went, we won two return tickets a couple of months ago in a raffle; first thing I think I’ve ever won! We stayed at The Park in Navi Mumbai, the newest of the Park properties and the only one I’ve never visited. Bizarrely enough, Pinky’s cousin is the general manager there, something we only found out once we had reached (small world). It’s a little out of the city but great for a lazy weekend.
Unfortunately, ours wasn’t so lazy. It’s about an hour-and-fifteen-minutes out of the city and around 45 minutes from the airport, which I suppose isn’t too bad with Mumbai distances and is very much in the modern Park style — quite small but nice and chirpy and stylised boutique with lots of interesting design features, very cool. It reminded me of The Park in Bangalore.

Anyway, I’d lined up far too many meetings with people I’ve not caught up with for ages. We arrived on Friday morning and set off into the city around 7pm to meet up with one of Pinky’s old mates from Calcutta who now lives in Andheri. I’d arranged to meet up with Ad Singh of Olive Bar And Kitchen fame at 9pm in Breach Candy, but I hadn’t realised it would take me two hours to reach. So I had to cancel that appointment; he has many plans over the next twelve months in Mumbai and in Delhi and was fascinated at what we were doing in Cal. We had dinner with Koena (Mitra) and her five dogs and headed back to the hotel. Saturday we got up early and headed to central Mumbai. I love the centre; it’s fantastic, all those old colonial buildings. By this time, the weather had brightened up. I met up with an old friend from Cal who is working with someone there to set up some bars with micro-breweries, very interesting concepts that I’m sure we will all be seeing more of in the near future. At lunch, we met up with Rahul Arkekar at Indigo and discussed what was new and happening in the restaurant scene in Mumbai. Mumbai really is kicking, but real estate is almost unimaginable to rent, never mind buy. Many restaurants are opening and closing within a few months. He has many new things planned over the next 12 months, a base kitchen and an outside catering operation. We walked over to the Indigo Deli, which I was really impressed with — loads of cured meats and cheeses, good breads, patisserie, lots of Indigo-branded items and a nice, maybe 25-seat deli cafe that was packed. Good job. Plenty more to come from him, I’m sure.

A little later, I went to meet Mathew Cropp at the Oberoi towers. The Oberoi has changed dramatically, last time I was there it was looking really shabby and run down. Mathew was the chef at The Sonar Calcutta when it first opened. We chatted about the usual cheffy stuff — suppliers, staffing or the lack if you like and what next, but quite a nice afternoon.

Early evening we met Ramola Bachchan at Zenzi Bar, we’ve met and discussed a couple of projects in the restaurant a couple of times in the past, she is working on a restaurant project in Delhi and we were discussing the option of maybe the Blue Potato somehow getting involved but we’ll just have to see how that pans out.
In the evening we went to Olive Bar and Kitchen, somewhere that I’ve not been to since I did some consultancy there around six years ago when it first opened. It’s not changed too much, still a great brand, but it wasn’t as busy as I’d expected and we were crammed into a tiny table in the corner in an area that used to be a Moroccan tent. We had a Caesar salad and a smoked salmon pizza, both were OK and headed off back to the hotel. Sunday morning again we woke early. Our flight was at 5am and I had a business meeting over lunch with someone who is planning on maybe investing in opening a Blue Potato there. But a lot of work to do on that and hopefully many more visits planned.