Speciality Restaurants bullish on Cafe Mezzuna

 Fine dining restaurant group Speciality Restaurants is planning to develop its brands in a big way, including the youngest one, Cafe Mezzuna — a gourmet Mediterranean restaurant and bar concept.

Speciality Restaurants, known for introducing popular names such as Oh! Calcutta, Sigree Global Grill and Mainland China to the Indian restaurant patron, developed the all-day dining Cafe Mezzuna to serve delectable fare from Italian, Mediterranean, Spanish and French cuisines, which is served in a fun, casual setting.

The first outlet came up in Pune, two years ago, followed by Kolkata in 2014. A Cafe Mezzuna recently opened in Bengaluru. “We currently have three Cafe Mezzuna outlets, which will reach 20 outlets (mostly in tier-I Indian cities), in the next few years,” Speciality Restaurants Founder and Managing Director Anjan Chatterjee told Deccan Herald.

“Cafe Mezzuna is part of our latest vertical catering to younger tastes. We have noticed that the definition of dining out is changing. Today’s customers include dynamic, vibrant and outgoing youth, with a lot of awareness, and new demands. While we have restaurant brands for serious family dining, we wanted to have a concept of evolving fine dining into fun dining,” he said, however, not revealing further details.

Hoppipola, another all-day fun and dining brand currently has eight outlets in three cities, while Mainland China, has 54 restaurants across India, Bengladesh and Tanzania.

“We embarked on a brand refresh of Mainland China, thus giving birth to the concept, ‘Mainland China Asia Kitchen’. Currently, with three outlets at Mumbai and Chennai, it offers a combination of Chinese and pan-Asian flavours,” Chatterjee said, hinting that its other said verticals will also see good expansion in future.

Speciality Restaurants has 113 outlets across India, and enjoyed a turnover of Rs 307 crore in FY2015.