Calcutta: Chai Break, a casual dining café chain, has emerged as the No. 2 player in its category in Calcutta, toppling established player Barista.

The chain now boasts of 10 outlets in the city, outnumbering rival Barista's 7, and is on course to add two more in as many months.

It, however, trails Café Coffee Day by a long shot, the largest chain in India, which has 90 outlets in Calcutta, all company-owned.

ALP Retail, which operates the Chai Break chain, has big plans for expansion after receiving the first round of funding from angel investors Venture Catalysts.

Founded seven years back by city lads Anirudh Poddar and Aditya Ladsaria with a Rs 15-lakh capital, ALP has set an ambitious target to reach 38 outlets over the next 14 months. The growth will, however, not be confined to Calcutta or Bengal.

"There is enough scope to grow in smaller towns in the east. We are expanding in Odisha and Assam in a significant way," Ladsaria said.

Like any other coffee chains, many of the new stores will be a mix of franchisee model where the outlets may be company-owned, franchisee operated or even franchisee invested and operated.

However, unlike other regular coffee chains, Chai Break has veered its model towards food. While coffee chains focus on café (sit down) and go-(vending) model, Chai Break has a big menu focusing on Italian as well as continental dishes.

It has also converted the Salt Lake Sector V outlet to a bar. The success of the new format at the tech hub has encouraged it to convert three more cafés - Kankurgachi, Ballygunj & Alipore - provided it gets the excise licence.

"What has clicked with us is combination of good food with tea. Plus, we are operating throughout the day. This is why we are profitable from day one," Anirudh Poddar said. Only 20 per cent of the billing come from beverages, while the rest is from food.

The founders recently raised Rs 5 crore by divesting a 10 per cent stake in the venture. But they are not using the cash for expansion. Instead, they have built a centralised kitchen at Kasba.

"Apart from product standardisation and cost benefit, it will help us in easy expansion. We wanted to put the back-end in order," Ladsaria explained.

For instance, the chain will not require to recruit chefs at every location; it can keep them centralised at one place to experiment new items or perfecting old ones.

Anirudh said Chai Break would travel to south after it consolidates in the east by September 2019. It may look at second round of funding then.

"Going forward, it will be more break than chai," quipped Poddar.