Amber restaurant on Waterloo Street. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

The fabled Fish Masala Kebab and Brain Curry are all set to travel out of their 11 Waterloo Street domain.

Amber, the “original upcountry fine-food haunt” in the city of 1959 vintage, has taken the expansion plunge. The second Amber outlet, an 80-seater restaurant in Silver Arcade on EM Bypass, will fire its tavas next month.

“We have been feeling the pinch for quite sometime now, and lunchtime walk-ins have dwindled almost 50 per cent, since parking is a perennial problem on Waterloo Street,” says owner S.K. Khullar, who along with his late elder brother Rajpal had launched Amber half a century ago.

With over 100 new restaurants having come up over the past two years and most of them doing reasonable business, the message was clear, feels son Sanjay Khullar, the director of the restaurant. “We must reach out to our clientele if they find it difficult to access our flagship.”

So once the Silver Arcade Amber lays its tables, the management will concentrate on launching smaller — “40 to 50-seater” — restaurant-cum-takeaways across the city. Kankurgachhi, Gariahat and Alipore are some of the likely locations, besides at least one restaurant in north Calcutta, with adequate parking space being the prime concern.

“We will of course serve all the signature Amber dishes like Chicken Reshmi Butter Masala, Mutton Rogan Josh and Chana Masala at the new outlets from our centralised kitchen on Waterloo Street. These will be complemented by a whole new low-fat Indian menu for today’s health-conscious customers,” declares Khullar Senior.

The eating house that has, over the years, served the likes of Indira Gandhi, Raj Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan and Bill Clinton plans to invest around Rs 3 crore to feed its expansion plan. The brand positioning is also set to change, with the focus more on the taste and taste buds of a younger clientele.

“Today’s working couples in new-age service sectors are hard-pressed for time and the ten-to-five work schedule is now history. So we have to be present in key catchments, in a newer, smarter format,” points out Sanjay Khullar. Hence, a structured staff training programme and a more minimalist approach to interiors.

A far cry from 1959, when Amber started with a 40-seater restaurant and a 50-seater bar — the “first in Calcutta to get a liquor licence” — on the ground floor of the Waterloo Street premises. The Khullars then took the property on lease and constructed three more floors to house what became the city’s first multiplex restaurant.

“We are proud of our heritage and thankful to Calcuttans for all the love and affection they have showered on us. To mark our golden jubilee next year, we are planning a three-month-long food festival to start around the Pujas, a celebration of 50 years of fine food,” says Khullar Senior.