Imagine a restaurant where the food is free! 'Why not,' says Smoke House Deli owner Riyaaz Amlani

Imagine walking into a restaurant, having the most sumptuous meal, and walking out – legally – without needing to pay for it. This or at least a version of it, is not all that unlikely. Who will foot the bill, you ask? The companies, of course!

Riyaaz Amlani, founder and CEO of Impresario Entertainment and Hospitality that runs popular joints like SOCIAL, Smoke House Deli, and Boss Burger, elaborates how that free lunch is possible. Amlani was speaking with Nikhil Kamath on the latest episode of his podcast ‘WTF is with Nikhil Kamath’, titled ‘WTF is The Restaurant Game’, along with guests Zorawar Kalra, known for brands like Farzi Cafe, Masala Library, and Pa Pa Ya, and Pooja Dhingra, renowned for Le15, known for their macaroons. 

“We are in the real estate space…sometimes people come to our real estate for the price of a coffee. But if you see where the media is going…you are scrolling and you have exactly 1 second to capture somebody’s attention, to be a thumb-stopper. And you rush past hoardings and you see it or you don’t. In a restaurant you are sitting for an hour and a half, you have undivided attention. That’s a place where actual behaviour modification can happen. You can, in a more sensory way, introduce products,” he explained. 

Amlani said that he envisions a restaurant like a television channel in the future. “Give the food for free, the advertising pays for it…people are doing it all over. Why not? It could become a model we could try. We are doing a few little experiments. There are certain restaurants that have the capability to have a certain influence on your behaviour. It does not necessarily have to be on the walls or have to be commerce. There are various ways that you can have an impact and work with other brands, which is quite cool, when you are in the business of culture,” he said. 

Zorawar Kalra said that one could charge for the wi-fi and make the food free. He gave the example of chupito bars and tapas bars in Spain, where one can go and pay for the drinks and get the meal for free. 

Kalra, before that, had explained how advertising pays restaurants. “In some of our bars, some of the key locations for logos are kept for beverage companies. Like Budweiser. We have a link with Budweiser, they put up the logos and pay us money for it. I don’t put cigarettes but ITC – cigarette company – would take up space on your bar, you can’t sell it, like you can put it over there and they will pay you a decent amount of money. And there are some restaurants where you can buy crockery and cutlery. There's art, lying up on the walls…,” he said. 

Amlani and Kalra both said that they believe this is one of the ways forward in the restaurant business. 

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