Dishoom: A Fun Design Story

I'm taking you to eat Vada Pau, wash it down with some Spiked Colaba Iced Tea and end the meal with some Kala Khatta Gola.  Iced tea not to your liking eh? How about a Thums up float then? We are heading to Bombay you think? Nah... We are heading to London's own 'Dishoom Chowpatty Beach' pop-up on London's Southbank where 48 tonnes of sand have been shipped to create a beach! If you think that is extraordinary, hold your horses till you hear the design story behind Dishoom.

My love for jugaad is well known. Dishoom exemplifies the spirit of jugaad in their design.

Let's take a walk to Chowpatty Beach...

The exterior is made out of old freight pallets, gorgeously re-purposed.

The terrace sit out is made out of reclaimed railway sleepers as benches and colourful barrels as seating. 

Let's head inside and take a peek...

The bar inside has a wall erected out of old tightly rolled newspapers!

I love how the metro-white tiled interior has quirky brightly coloured chairs and old jam jars as lighting adding just the right touch of pop. 

The blurry old sepia photo in the background is actually a clock! And how fun! The lopsided moustache definitely had me cracking up!

And let's not forget the Golas I promised earlier on...

 

Wondering who is behind all of this?  That would be the Gujarati trinity of Amar, Adarsh and Shamil Thakrar. Over numerous trips over the years back to Bombay, inspired by the charm of old Bombay cafes, they decided to bring a large slice of Bombay back with them to London. 

So, Amar the E&Y Chartered Accountant, Adarsh the Merrill Lynch  Equity Fund Manager and Shamil- an MBA turned serial entrepreneurs finally took the plunge with the original Dishoom Bombay Cafe in London. You can read all about the first Dishoom cafe's equally interesting design story here.

Please head to Dishoom's website to see more photos of their fun cafes. 

A special thanks to Rebecca Brett from Roche Communications for all her help in putting this post together. 

Here's a shout out to London to Shilpa Bhatnagar for letting me know about Dishoom's existence.

{Photo credit for all images to Dishoom}