Khaja Chowk, the kitschy Indian street food joint, is ready to open its third outlet in Delhi on Monday, August 16. The restaurant at Vasant Vihar's Basant Lok complex will be able to seat 39.
"Our expansion plan is on course. Talks are on with prospective partners to open outlets in New York and San Diego," says garment exporter Vikram Nair, co-promoter of Khaja Chowk
Khaja Chowk opened its first outlet earlier this year at Gurgaon's Plaza Mall; the second one at Bungalow Road, near the North Campus, started functioning a few days back.
His partners in the business are garment exporter Rajiv Bal, filmmaker Mira Nair, furnishings exporter Shefali Nair and management professionals Vijay Toley and Anil Tandon. Investment in this outlet is close to Rs 25 lakh (Rs 2.5 million).
"We're targeting an average daily sale of Rs 30,000," says Nair. The 66-seater Gurgaon outlet is clocking an average daily sale of Rs 30,000 while the 90-seater Bungalow Road one does Rs 35,000.
Nair plans to open two more Khaja Chowk outlets -- Janakpuri in Delhi and Dwarka (a township outside Delhi) -- before the end of the year. Both would be run on franchisee lines.
The Janakpuri outlet is what Nair is gung-ho about: "It's going to be spread across nearly 7,000 sq ft and will be able to seat 200 people. Moreover, we want to recreate a slice of the Indian street life there with jugglers, tightrope walkers and musicians."
Nair and his partners want to make the Indian street hip and on that line also want to bring out a range of traditional Indian toys made of wood.
"We'll retail these toys under the Khaja Chowk brand name from our restaurants. In a way it's preserving our heritage and also adds to the restaurant's ambience," he says.