First look: Khan-e-khaas
Bandra’s new eatery is a culinary shrine to Salman Khan.
When converting their takeaway Mughlai place into a sitdown eatery, partners Rahul Kanal, Tabrez Shaikh, Sohail Siddique and Zeeshan Shaikh decided to go local - very local. “Salman Khan is Bandra, and everyone’s favourite. He is a Bandraite; we are all Bandraites. We also went to St Stanislaus School like him. So we thought, why not build a tribute to Bhaijaan,” says 28-year-old Kanal.
Co-incidentally, their existing name - Bhaijaanz - easily lent itself to the starry persona.
For decor details, Kanal mined the memories of his friends from school and other Salman fans. “Since he has always liked bikes and bicycles, artist Tyrell Walladres made us tables from cycle sprockets, and light fixtures with cycle chains. We hear Salman only drinks Bacardi, but since we don’t have a liquor license, we had bottles made out of keys.”
As you enter the eatery, various dialogues from Khan’s movies - Maine ek bar commitment de di, toh main khud ki bhi nahin sunta - greet you. The mezzanine floor is made to look like the balcony of his Galaxy Apartments home on Bandstand.
There’s a painting of him as The Hulk because “we see him as a superhero,” says Kanal. There’s another one too, commissioned to Rohan Joglekar. Awaited is a wax model of the actor that will go into the ‘Selfie Corner’ and a jukebox that will play the actors scenes, songs, and dialogues. Another corner will have a screen with a live-feed of the actor’s Twitter and Facebook updates. Number plates of the delivery bikes will have the actor’s birth date. A friend with a special talent for curating currency notes with particular serial numbers was enlisted for procuring notes whose serial numbers coincide with release dates of the actor’s movies. They have 147 of these which are being framed.
“We hope that if Bhai comes here, he’ll like it,” says Kanal. “We’ve kept in mind that he likes the Moroccan theme and navy blue. Also, we don’t want to offend him. First we thought all the waiters should wear the turquoise bracelet his father has gifted him, but then we settled for a table with fake stone bracelets because we know he has a sentimental value towards that accessory.”
It is for this reason that no pictures of his female co-stars share space with him.
Does Salman know? Kanal has tweeted at him and once the eatery opens on March 3, we’ll find out.
When converting their takeaway Mughlai place into a sitdown eatery, partners Rahul Kanal, Tabrez Shaikh, Sohail Siddique and Zeeshan Shaikh decided to go local - very local. “Salman Khan is Bandra, and everyone’s favourite. He is a Bandraite; we are all Bandraites. We also went to St Stanislaus School like him. So we thought, why not build a tribute to Bhaijaan,” says 28-year-old Kanal.
Co-incidentally, their existing name - Bhaijaanz - easily lent itself to the starry persona.
Kanal took charge of the theme, while 33-year-old Tabrez, a former sous chef at the Radisson in London was in charge of the menu. Bhai’s favourites - liberally buttered brun, haleem, paya and his mother’s special Hyderabadi kachche gosht ki dum biryani were added to the menu. Existing items were given a twist - you’ll find dole-shole mutton kebabs as a tribute to his biceps, Dabangg biryani, Ready Steady dal makhani, and Get your Kick with Lahori nallinihari.
For decor details, Kanal mined the memories of his friends from school and other Salman fans. “Since he has always liked bikes and bicycles, artist Tyrell Walladres made us tables from cycle sprockets, and light fixtures with cycle chains. We hear Salman only drinks Bacardi, but since we don’t have a liquor license, we had bottles made out of keys.”
As you enter the eatery, various dialogues from Khan’s movies - Maine ek bar commitment de di, toh main khud ki bhi nahin sunta - greet you. The mezzanine floor is made to look like the balcony of his Galaxy Apartments home on Bandstand.
There’s a painting of him as The Hulk because “we see him as a superhero,” says Kanal. There’s another one too, commissioned to Rohan Joglekar. Awaited is a wax model of the actor that will go into the ‘Selfie Corner’ and a jukebox that will play the actors scenes, songs, and dialogues. Another corner will have a screen with a live-feed of the actor’s Twitter and Facebook updates. Number plates of the delivery bikes will have the actor’s birth date. A friend with a special talent for curating currency notes with particular serial numbers was enlisted for procuring notes whose serial numbers coincide with release dates of the actor’s movies. They have 147 of these which are being framed.
“We hope that if Bhai comes here, he’ll like it,” says Kanal. “We’ve kept in mind that he likes the Moroccan theme and navy blue. Also, we don’t want to offend him. First we thought all the waiters should wear the turquoise bracelet his father has gifted him, but then we settled for a table with fake stone bracelets because we know he has a sentimental value towards that accessory.”
It is for this reason that no pictures of his female co-stars share space with him.
Does Salman know? Kanal has tweeted at him and once the eatery opens on March 3, we’ll find out.
