Cheers to timings!

The night has just got younger. The government’s move to extend restaurant timings until midnight, has warmed the cockles of quite a few hearts in the City.

Pub crawlers and foodies are thrilled over the new timings. The realisation that their night need not end at 11.30 pm has elated them. With a considerable section of Bangaloreans being call centre workers and IT employees, going out at night in search of food is more of a necessity than lifestyle.

Those who drove to the outskirts of the City to dine are now happy that they can go to their favourite joint in the heart of the City. Some restaurants in the City have welcomed the new timings. They say that while recession has hit them hard, they hope that the new move would sure bring in a new crowd — the late night workers. However, some others are furious by the government’s short-sightedness and their bad sense of timing.

Senthil Kumar, captain of 100-ft restaurant in Indiranagar, says that he is one among those who has been eagerly awaiting such a change. “All the late night moviegoers and working lot will now head to our restaurant for sure. We had lost about Rs five to six lakh earnings in the last one month. I am sure the new timings will boost our sales,” he says.

And the change was there for all to see in the first weekend after the new
timings came into force. Most restaurants in the City were packed to the hilt last weekend. Was it the IPL or the change in timings? “Both,” says K S Rajneesh, manager of The Beach in Indiranagar. “We have started getting corporate reservations which is a new phenomenon,” he says.

But it is still common to find some restaurants shutting shop at 11.30 pm. They say that they continue to follow the old timings either because they aren’t aware of the implementation or the restaurant is yet to apply for permission to extend their timings.

The Only Place on Museum Road says they’ve always been shutting by 11 pm and will continue to do so because their clientele comprises mainly of foreigners, who choose to have their supper by 7 pm and return home thereafter. “We also have people who come in at nine for dinner after they’ve had a peg or two because we don’t serve alcohol,” says Shoaib Haroon, owner.

Santosh Koshy, owner of Koshy’s says he’s furious about the new extension, “If a customer walks in at 11.30 pm and places an order and the food arrives at five minutes to midnight, then what do we do? Do we chase our customers out? Never. The government must fix the timings in a way that gives the customers time to finish eating and the management to wind up,” he reasons. Kershasp R Katrak, GM of the Bayleaf in Koramangala, says he’s thrilled about the change in timings but he’s yet to apply for a licence that would permit opening his place till midnight. Among the pubs, Gordon D’Souza, General Manager of Hard Rock Cafe says, “It will surely boost our profits.” 

Ashish Kothare, president of the Association of Bars, Restaurants, Pubs and Hotels, Bangalore, however, doesn’t see the extension of timings benefiting the owners in any way because people who dine in after the late night show need at least 20 minutes to get to the place where they want to eat. They then have to place the order and by the time the order arrives, it’s time to get home. “What sort of extension is this?” he asks.