Social, the popular hangout which is present across nine cities, opens its 50th outlet in Hyderabad

Social, the popular hangout which is present across nine cities, opens its 50th outlet in Hyderabad

Riyaaz Amlani will forever be the man who made dining in the bathroom popular. Remember when Mocha opened in Chennai in 2005 and one of the dining rooms resembled a bathroom replete with a bathtub, washbasin and western closet? “That was a real bathroom,” laughs Riyaaz, founder and managing director of Impesario Hospitality that has restaurants like Mocha, Social, Anti Social, Smoke House Deli, Slink and Bardot under its umbrella.

Mocha was Impresario’s first venture which started in Mumbai’s Churchgate back in 2001. Currently there are over 20 Mocha outlets in the country. “We wanted to create interesting places for people to hang out. In many ways, Social is Mocha 2.0. It is our growth engine,” says Riyaz. Proof of that is the 50th Social that just opened in Hyderabad’s Mindspace City. “We’ve introduced a lot of technology in building the space. There are a lot of moving lights and interactive projections instead of static decor. There’s also a rock garden, with projectionson them,” says Riyaaz who has been part of the food and beverage industry for 22 years now.

Riyaaz noticed a pattern where people were bringing their laptops to cafes for meetings. They then lingered on and worked on presentations and were enjoying the experience of working from there. That led the team at Impresario to create Social, a co-working space, cafe and bar. “Now this has become ubiquitous.”

Social made its debut in March 2014 at Bengaluru’s Church Street. The city was becoming an IT hub. We saw this big need for people to hangout at places that have high energy, says Riyaaz. “You can come to Social for breakfast, lunch, afternoon chai, coffee, post work drinks, party...,” he adds.

Before Social started mushrooming across the country, people thought a bar could not be scaled up, he says. It is now present in nine cities, with Mumbai having 19 outlets. What works, according to Riyaaz, is the vibe, the fact that each outlet is different, the hyper local connection. While 85% of the menu is similar, the remaining changes in every city. “We keep experimenting with drinks, local flavours and dishes. Every city has a different palate. Hyderabad likes their food spicy and sour, the West likes their food sweet. North prefers red chilli and the South is all about black pepper,” he adds. In Hyderabad, the menu features dal khichdi with aloo and khatta for breakfast, Andhra biryani, khubani ka meetha, double ka halwa, and lots of dishes with Guntur chillies.

At Impresario, the focus is on adding between 15 and 20 Socials every year for the next few years and going deeper into cities. “While we have been targeting capital cities, we are also in tier two cities like Chandigarh, Indore and Pune. Lucknow is next on our list, along with Bhopal and Nagpur. Then there’s Guwahati, Cochin, Mangalore... so many cities left unexplored,” he says.

In terms of aspiration, the tier two cities tend to have little bit more disposable income than tier one cities. “They want quality offerings. Reverse migration has happened because of the pandemic. So, we are seeing a very good market,” observes Riyaaz. The trend of Indians dining out has increased over the past few years. “Today, basis industry intel and the data trends available with us, Indians are going out to dine roughly 15 to 20 times per month in urban areas, which is higher than the 2019 average (6.6 times),“ he says, adding, “It’s a great time to be in the casual dining space.”