Idea's Forum

Sometimes the unlikeliest people make business partners for some of the unlikeliest reasons. Forum restaurant is one such venture that is promoted by a loose federation of mostly second- and third-generation bizz-kids who would appear to have little in common other than their lineage.

Now, they've tied up for the promotion of "hospitality entertainment", and all because they're part of a group that hangs around together for reasons both professional and social or, in other parlance, networking.

The Young Entrepreneurs Organisation is a selective body that pitches at a league of young entrepreneurs and has a membership that is in no hurry to strike a century. Within its parent body, there are sub-divisions or smaller groups that are encouraged to come together.

One such group, calling itself Forum, consists of Divya and Amit Burman, Deepshikha and Abhishek Khaitan, Minal and Abhishek Somany, Arvind and Shagun Khanna, Nitya and Mahesh Bharany, Jyotika and Raminder Singh, Soni and Rohit Aggarwal, and Nikhil Talwar.

Forum meets every month, usually at The Chambers or Belvedere. It was at one such session that the idea of a restaurant and bar was mooted and, presumably, accepted by the constituents of Forum.

That they were not restaurateurs, or had professional training in the business, was not a deterrent.

"We knew we could hire the best, set systems," says Amit Burman. As far as the food was concerned, they were willing to be guided by their own preferences "" light, fusion dining with a global flavour. Marut Sikka was hired as a consultant to prepare a menu.

Forum's "food by design" concept is served in a three-tier Greater Kailash outlet in New Delhi. An interactive bar, lounge and an atrium well with performance space has been handsomely laid out, thanks to the efforts of the group's spouses who "have an interest in interiors" says Burman. Opened with an outlay of Rs 2 crore, Burman says the restaurant should break even soon enough.

Lunch business in the largely residential district is still poor, though dinner service picks up, but the bar should compensate in no mean measure to its popularity.

The food is served attractively, if not always authentically, but then Forum aims at concept dining rather than critical dining.

What's interesting about Forum, though, is that the loose federation of owners want to use the concept to step up their activities in other cities as soon as they've standardised the flagship outlet, and got around to identifying franchisees.

Why not other-owned Forum restaurants? "We'd never be able to supervise them," says Burman, "we all have our own businesses to take care of." Does that mean Forum is likely to be the only business venture for these young entrepreneurs.

"We'd like to explore some more," Burman is guarded, "after all, even though we're in different industries, we can have synergies, such as my food business and Abhishek Khaitan's liquor business." Now that's a thought, and obviously Forum still has several aces up its collective sleeve.