In the time that we’ll have read this article “Villa55”, the newest rage in the food business will have gained a few more loyal fans. There has been seldom a place that has garnered so much praise within it’s first week of launch. In this article we dive deep into what “Villa55” actually is and what aptly defines it correctly with the help of a conversation with Rohit Gupte, Nikhil Nayak and Balli Osan; the people behind the venture Villa55.
It is easy to confuse and to box Villa55 as ‘a café’ or ‘an urban dining restaurant’ but it is a beautiful restaurant serving amazing food with three different sections to suit your mood, namely, Cafe, Outdoor Seating and Urban Dining.
Nikhil Nayak says, “We wanted the in-store branding to have an all inclusive vibe as we think of Villa55 as a place for all age groups and all kinds of gatherings, from families to friends and also for people who want to spend some time alone, but at the same time each place needs to have it’s own vibe. There were many challenges we faced to combine the food and themes together. Infact one of the very first challenges that we faced was during the tasting phase where we were getting mixed reviews. Some were very impressed with the experiments and some wanted the taste to be a bit conventional. In fact we even added a first of it’s kind menu of Coastal Konkan delicacies. And I’m glad that we’ve been able to pull that off.” These efforts are visible at the outlet in the shapes of ‘low seating area’ at the cafe’, seating arrangement of the hut at the outdoor seating section and vibrantly well defined Room No. 55/1, Room No. 55/2 and Room No.55/3 at the Urban Dining Section.
In places such as these where you are so enamored by the visual grandeur that you automatically start to have expectations from the food. Villa55 matches these expectations. One look at the simple yet experimental menu proves it and the taste will keep you swooning over Villa55 for a long time. Rohit Gupte says, “ In the conceptualization stage we all decided that we wanted Villa55 to be a very interactive place where the focus is still on food but the customers shouldn’t feel like they are waiting for food. They should be able to spend a lot of time here on their first visit and still come back to spend some more time. So a lot of the stuff that you see here compliments that thought process. Everything from the barrel tops, to the wallpaper and even the scribble art is a direct result of that. We’ve invested a lot in the music and the sound quality so that there is a scope for live performances. It took a lot of permutations for us to be able to find the right mix between the conventional food that we are used to and the food that we wanted to and so far we are getting a good response so we’re a bit relaxed.”
“Any cafe or restaurant depends heavily on the ability to retain and acquire new customers for their success. We’ve made sure that there is a unifying theme between food, interiors and the ambience along with constant updates to social media pages to lay the groundwork for our customer acquisitions” says Balli Osan.
So, Villa55 is a café and an urban dining restaurant. It is a place with great food and great ambience but these things don’t aptly define Villa55. Villa55 can be defined perfectly as, “The nature that lets us be.”
