What brings you to town?
The hotel here is one of my favourite properties in the whole group... and the fact that it’s a 175-year-old heritage hotel, even older than the Raffles. So other than to make sure that everything — including HB1 (the heritage block of the hotel housing 49 suites) — is on track, I’m doing a Kitty Su pop-up night at Wilson’s, the heritage pub (which happened on Saturday night). 

It’s not like you’re testing the waters now…
To see if I’ll ever open a Kitty Su?! No, no, no, the decision is made, the space of Kitty Su is there. It’s a rooftop with the view of the entire city but it’s going to take some time. Till that happens, I’ve got Wilson’s and The Bakery and I want people to know about that. Right now I think there’s a perception that it’s such a heritage hotel, some people might feel a little overwhelmed or feel that it’s for an older generation. A bit like the reputation that The Oberoi Grand has... being such a beautiful hotel. So Wilson’s was created to provide a casual space, with a separate entry and exit so you don’t have to go via the lobby or hotel security or the intimidation of a 175-year-old hotel. 

What, according to you, is the USP of Kitty Su?
The experience. Plus, while some other nightclubs may find it difficult to pay the rentals, we won’t have that issue, being owners of the property.

How do you explain the steep pricing at The Bakery?
The reason that we’re expensive is because we do not compromise on quality. That was the first mandate given to my chef and team. Whatever chocolate you eat is not compound chocolate, it’s real Valrhona chocolate. Whatever cream you eat is not Palmolive shaving cream, it’s actual real fresh cream that is made on the day. So, you know, every product that you get in The Bakery is actually how a patisserie in France would be and that’s probably the reason why it’s a little expensive. But I honestly feel that there are certain items in The Bakery that are pretty competitive. 

Any plans to introduce a microbrewery?
We want to. Wilson’s was going to be the first microbrewery of Calcutta. That was supposed to be its USP. I don’t know what happened, there was some change in the law. I’m following it up. It’s a British pub, it has to have a microbrewery and draught beer. Let’s hope for the best.

What is occupancy at The Lalit Great Eastern like?
Business has picked up. At an average, we are sitting at 50 per cent occupancy, which is fairly okay for a new hotel. Weekends go down to around 36 per cent but I would definitely say that our banqueting does a turnaround pretty much daily so it does a morning, noon and night. Very soon, we’re going to be at our target of 60-75 per cent. We’ve also tied up with World Hotels to strengthen the international travel that happens to Calcutta. We have a big French team with us and they’re long-stay leisure travellers. So there is a leisure travel crowd that comes from France and the UK. Plus, if Raffles brought a lot of people into Singapore then why shouldn’t The Lalit Great Eastern?

What’s the progress on HB1?
There (points outside the window at the construction work), you can see it (laughs). I would say HB1 will  open after the beginning of the next financial year. Two floors will be ready by December-January and the entire thing including Maxim’s, Baluchi and the resto 24X7 will come later. In the meantime, you’ve still got the beautiful Edwardian wing, The Bakery and Alfresco, which is gorgeous. And soon you will have a Kitty Su as well.

Srinagar to London — your properties are rich in heritage...
I think that’s what we do now (laughs). We’ve got The Lalit Grand Palace Srinagar which is 200 years old, The Lalit Laxmi Vilas Palace Udaipur which is 150 years old; to an extent the Khajuraho and Bangalore hotels because they were ITDC Hotels and had to be restored, and we’ve got TLGE. 

At the London property, we’re doing the piling work. In Calcutta, we used the basement to build a car park. There, it will be for a bigger kitchen because we take our food seriously. Plus restaurants in London are killer. We want to take our Baluchi there.

Tell us more about The Lalit Food Truck Company... 
On a larger scale, we do outdoor catering, which we call The Lalit Food Truck Co. So we can really cater to big weddings that might be happening in other venues. Physically also, we have three Mexican food trucks — in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. It’s not a new concept but it is new for a hotel chain to have food trucks. I’m also doing this food truck trail where the Bangalore truck will travel across the country... through Mumbai, Goa and Bekal (Kerala) and I’m going to connect the properties all the way to Srinagar. While it drives, it will do some CSR activities as well like distribute food in rural areas. I’m going to be taking food trucks to another level. After Mexican, I want to do a pizza truck because pizzas are the easiest thing to sell anywhere in the world.

Karo Christine Kumar