The story of our 25 years is a story that has always been about you, it’s not about us,” says Anjan Chatterjee, chairman and managing director of Speciality Restaurants. By “you” he, of course, means the customer at his restaurants, and as the head of a restaurant corporation, he believes that “you are as good as the last customer who walks out”. In Calcutta to celebrate the completion of 25 years of Speciality Restaurants on Thursday, Chatterjee sat down with t2 for a chat tracing his journey so far and the road ahead, at Mainland China, Gurusaday Road, his first ever restaurant in the city. 

“The feeling of making someone feel good about the experience of the interface, right from the valet to the end of the meal, the dessert… that’s what it’s all about. It is the small things that go into creating it, like the shawl to the reading glasses, the ladies’ pack and the medicines…. In 25 years the effort has always been to give you the little details that make you feel comfortable, cosy. And the power comes in from the team, they may not be very flashy in English, but attitudinally they are hospitable people. So they’re hired for attitude, trained for skills. I have strongly believed in that,” he says.

Starting off with Only Fish in Mumbai in 1992, the Speciality chain now owns a slew of F&B brands spread across the country and even abroad. “When we opened Only Fish, there would be a waiting for about 20-25 people almost every day from Wednesday to Sunday. What we did was we introduced welcome drinks for all of them, maybe some of them would leave from there, but the fact that they were waiting and maybe thirsty… a fact we learnt from every Bengali household, to welcome people with sweets along with a glass of water. This culture of poribeshon (serving) we had learnt, that was my first hospitality training,” he recalls. Over to Chatterjee...

T2’S FAVE SPECIALITY STOPS IN CALCUTTA

THREE THINGS I HAVE LEARNT IN THESE 25 YEARS

The first learning has been that expansion should be done, but expansion should be done with a rationale. The reason why I am saying this is because any form of expansion in a fine-dining space can hurt you unless you have an operational depth. Maybe at a point of time we were growing at a fast pace without that infrastructural and operational depth, so we slowed down, we consolidated, we understood that the numbers game is not important. 

After 25 years, we are no more in the race. Two things are important, since we are a public limited company, the company has to be profitable, whether it is 20 restaurants or 200. The more the number of restaurants you have, you are spreading yourself thin. So to any newcomer I would say that consolidate yourself first. Also, consistency is the key… we, in terms of FCQ (food consistency quotient), had been withering a bit… because what happens is when you open new restaurants, skilled manpower becomes a problem. But in the last three years, there has been a very intelligently planned growth. We have also shut down restaurants. 

Since we are in the business of happiness, we have always hired attitude, not skills; or a combination of the two. Willing and able is the ideal situation; there are some who are willing and unable, them you can make able… but the unwilling and able are dangerous… that has happened in our company, never tolerate them. I have taken a little time to understand that, but be ruthless there. That’s the second learning. 

The third learning would be that when you build a team, being a leader, just crush your ego, crush it to a level where you don’t actually have an ego. The only objective should be the benefit of the organisation. Anybody who is coming to the table with an idea is a hero. Of course you need a pilot to take decisions, but overall hear every voice, get everyone to contribute. You never know how even a humble boy in housekeeping will contribute. 

THREE THINGS I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY

If I were to start all over again, we wouldn’t have done very large restaurants… larger the restaurant, bigger the staff, bigger the overheads. If I were to start now, I would have done max 70-80 covers, tight ones. 

The second thing I would have done is, I would have gone to a chartered accountancy school. My right brain, which is the creative part of the brain, is very strong, but I learnt the working of the left brain, the financials, much later. If I could, I would have learnt the language of the financial world right in the beginning. 

The third thing is, I wish I had been a little more professional in understanding the unwillingness and inability of people. At the end of it, being the head of a corporation, at a point of time you need to be ruthless. Don’t drag on laggards. 

THREE MILESTONES IN 25 YEARS

The first one was being able to replicate the second or third outlet of a restaurant in multi-cities. To understand the business model and whether it is working and then you replicate that — that’s a milestone. Second, recognition by a private equity company to give us valuation in 2007-08. Third was the IPO in 2012; we were the first and only Indian restaurant company to have gone public limited. In the financial context, I must tell you with pride, my father taught me that the richest man in the world is the one who doesn’t have any debts, and we continue to be debt-free even today.

NEW INITIATIVES 

Outdoor catering: Speciality’s outdoor catering (Mobifeast) has always been laid-back, low volume-high margin work. We continue to be selective, but we are going very big with our outdoor catering. We have invested heavily into equipment, infrastructure, in putting up a back-end area, and now we are going all out to market ourselves and we are getting into very big catering orders. 

Skill development: Bengal has always been the hub of our skill development, along with a bit of Odisha… now we are increasing focus on that. The government of Bengal has tied up with us and we are setting up a skill development centre in Salt Lake. Almost 150 people will study in every batch. We are giving them six-month courses, three months’ classroom and three months’ practical. And most of them will be absorbed by us. The government is going to bear the cost of their fees and we are setting up the place. We are putting up a pilot training kitchen, classrooms.... So this is actually paying back to the society. 

MY GIFTS TO CALCUTTA IN THE 25TH YEAR

Spiceserie: An Indian speciality restaurant coming up at Acropolis mall. 
Episode: An all-day dining restaurant in Topsia. It’s like a modern coffee house, only here you will go to drink. It’s an accessible place with great global food inspired by Bengal. A complete eclectic thing, very minimalistic. Not as wild as Hoppipola; you can go and have a conversation there, there will be a speak-easy area with low music for conversations. You’ll get the best breakfast, proper English breakfast and all… and freshly-brewed beer. 
Nakli Dhaba: A rustic filmi dhaba with characters like Samba and Tiger in the decor, not the usual trucks and charpoys, and with authentic dhaba food, in south Calcutta, at an easy price point.
Gong: The Mainland China outlet in Silver Arcade will be replaced by this pan-Asian restaurant with a twist, playing on a lot of different ingredients which we usually don’t use. Completely different from Asia Kitchen or Mainland China. 

Smita Roy Chowdhury