Mocha’s Riyaaz Amlani lauds Mumbai’s victory over communalism; dishes out soul food to Anoothi Vishal
Like most of upper middle-class India, Riyaaz Amlani, restaurateur, otherwise pretty much the cool dude with a passion for big bikes, is angry. Mumbai has done that to his soul. “Our ability to cope has been both our strength and weakness,” he says, “but this time, I think, there is genuine anger against the politicians that will not abate.”
Amlani, owner of the smart stand-alones Salt Water, Smoke House and, lately, Stone House Grills in Mumbai, Delhi and Pune, apart from the Mocha chain of cafes all across the country, is candid enough to admit this is the first time that people “who can vocalise their anger have been hit rather than some blast in a crowded market or in a train”. But even the chanawallahs or people on the street whom he talks to share this middle-class sense of outrage and anger.
And what about people like him? Amlani, after all, is of “mixed heritage”, half-Parsi, half-Muslim. Is there a sense of fear too mixed up with the anger? “That was a big concern,” he admits, “But thankfully, this time, unlike in the past, people know they are being played and all the anger is directed at the politicians rather than at a community,” he says.
Professionally, business has been hit by negative sentiments, but Amlani says there is a minority that is, nevertheless, going ahead with its plans to eat out and party. The defiance is because they don’t want to “let a bunch of lunatics hold up their lives”.
If you happen to be part of that minority and step into one of Amlani’s restaurants, don’t be surprised to see a flamboyant bike parked outside. That would just mean that the owner is in town and visiting, and terror threats or not, superbikes are very much his preferred mode of transport. In fact, only some time ago, he had made a solo trip from Mumbai to Delhi on his bike, stopping at all the Mocha outlets in between. The boss keeping tabs?
Apart from being an avid biker, Amlani — when not angry — is also an enthusiastic film and music buff, backpacker, adventurous traveller and a maker of innovative Maggi noodle dishes.
His defining characteristic is that he is unconventional, and you know it almost as soon as you meet him. In fact, a look at the menus of his restaurants tells you as much. Amlani is closely associated with the creative processes, including the kinds of dishes that make it to his restaurants. Which is why, perhaps, the Smoke House Grill’s halibut done in a shimla mirch sauce is a fair indicator of the man himself!
When I meet him over lunch, Amlani encourages me to order a pumpkin soup of all things. I confess that I would never have zeroed in on such a choice on my own. But when the soup arrives, it takes me by surprise — it is more appetising than I could have ever imagined. I tell Amlani that and he promptly offers to switch it with his own smoked tomato and lemon grass offering, spectacularly flavourful.
But let’s begin with the coffee: Circa 2000, one year after the new millennium struck, on New Year’s Eve, Amlani and a couple of friends sat around drinking coffee, thinking, perhaps, that they would go out and party a “little later”.
That never happened. “We were having so much fun just sitting and chatting over coffee that we went on till early next morning.” Unimaginable for a bunch of 20-somethings to be spending their New Year’s Eve, high on just coffee? But that’s how it was and Amlani claims that at some point, one of his friends remarked that if “someone could bottle up this moment and sell it, he/she would be very rich.”
The idea struck root. That same year, Amlani, back from an American university after having studied media marketing or some such thing, unleashed Mocha upon a populace who only knew cafés to be slightly dismal places run by coffee boards, selling cheap snacks and filter coffee — or “Expresso”, if you like.
Mocha, on the other hand, was cool, and came equipped with hookahs — a place where younger people could park themselves, even if they didn’t land up drinking that much coffee. While questions may have been raised about the whole business model, today, it is an unabashed success with all the Baristas and CCDs following suit and a generation of stand-alones facilitating everything from business on laptops to meetings, recruitments and marriage alliances over a cappuccino.
But as befits his maverick status, Amlani wants to change that. He confesses that he is planning to revamp Mocha outlets into something totally new; the idea being “that when you enter one, you don’t know what to expect.” Friends and confidants have expressed their scepticism, but Amlani is enthused by a concept of a place “where you can also have coffee”. At Emporio, the luxury mall in Delhi, for instance, he is planning an outlet that will be an art gallery — an unconventional one no doubt — which will also serve you coffee, not, he says, a café that uses art to decorate its walls.
The conversation turns back to Mumbai and Amlani remarks, “You should come to Prithvi Café. You’ll enjoy that.” Apart from being one of those landmark places that still exist and where you will find ageing doyens in deep conversation, this is a café that Amlani runs.
“When we took it over, I saw all these old people sitting around and I asked them what they would like to see changed and one of them looked back at me and said, ‘Not a thing.’ So we did exactly that,” he grins. Not a thing. Instead, the concept was to sell Mumbai’s famous street foods (vada pav sold by a particular vendor et al) on the premises. Amlani’s company buys up these from vendors and sells them at the café, he says.
Luckily, this is one institution that endures along with a sense of nostalgia.
We can end this conversation on a sombre note — in real time, it may have ended as such. But here, I ask him about Maggi noodles, instead. And he lets me in on a couple of quick recipes — noodles mixed with some keema mince, à la spaghetti bolognaise, or mixed up with mom’s leftover chicken curry. Comfort food in uncomfortable times.
