How This Mumbai Based Cafe is Creating a Buzz Among People

Started by the brother-sister duo, Daksh Gupta, and Ruhi Gupta, August Café is catering varieties of cuisines and desserts to local people of Mumbai. They are the third generation in the business and their entire idea is towards bringing international taste and cuisines nationally at a local level. Excerpts from the interview:

How did food happen to you?

We are the third generation involved in the business. My father already has 15 running outlets under the name of ‘Surbhi Sweets’. I basically come from a family where everyone is a restaurateur. Ruhi, my sister has been in Europe for almost a decade completing her hospitality course from Switzerland followed by London and Paris for her patisserie course from Le Cordon Bleu. I completed my graduation one and half years back after which I had to decide whether I wanted to pursue my education further or step into the business industry. I decided to step into the business segment trying to understand new trends which are invading the food industry.

How is the role divided while running the café?

Ruhi takes care of the production, while I deal with marketing and customer management. One can say that August Café is Ruhi’s brainchild, and I provide the physical effort required for running the venture. Given my sister’s expertise, I have a lot to learn from her.

Why come up with the name August café?

Our initial plan was to start a chocolate patisserie shop of the name Cacao Etc., but later we switched to the idea of starting our own café.  The name August came to us randomly as the month has played an important role in our lives. Also, it has a very significant meaning which is impressive and prestigious.

What are the various kinds of challenges you see while being in the industry?

First, the finalization of the location plays an important role while setting up your venture. We faced a lot of challenges while deciding it. Another challenge that I see is the staffing segment. I believe that getting the right people on board is very important as they’re the face of a particular venture. Other few challenges are the human resources and various marketing challenges followed by menu designing and various new trends which our food industry faces every now and then.

What is the uniqueness of August café?

We believe in coming to a solution rather than arriving at it. The main uniqueness of our café is that we have an in-house patisserie and bakery serving varieties of mouth-watering delicacies. We make dishes in limited number which are completely made in-house. Thereby serving guaranteed fresh food to customers.

Tell us something about the décor of August café?

We wanted our café to be classic and elegant with a slight European touch. The café’s interiors have white walls with a portion being checked giving it an elegance, while our outdoor area is lush green. Black, gold, white and grey are the four colors which we have at our café.

What are your expansion plans?

As it's our first venture, we are trying to solely concentrate on it. We want to make our brand as popular as we can and then shift the gear towards expanding. In future, we will be expanding it on our own or via franchise.