Inspired by the SIGNS restaurant in Toronto, Mumbai’s newly opened Mirchi & Mime offers its patrons a unique service experience where actions speak louder than words By Rituparna Chatterjee
The newly opened Mirchi & Mime at Powai, Mumbai is unlike any other restaurant in the city. For this Indian restaurant, sign language is the most acceptable and desirable form of communication between its staff and patrons since all of its 27 waiting staff are hearing and speech impaired. A few simple hand gestures briefed by the managers to the patrons and mentioned in the menu ensure a seamless ordering process. In the menu, the dishes have been divided under categories such as soups and salads, tawa, tandoor, sigri, etc. Each category has been assigned a particular sign and a corresponding number. To order a dish, the guest has to choose the sign of that particular section to which the dish belongs and the corresponding number. “But in case a guest doesn’t want to do that, he can point the dish out to the waiter or there is also a manager at hand,” mentions Prashant Issar, CEO, Squaremeal Foods, the parent company of Mirchi & Mime. The service concept is unique but what adds more value to the entire dining experience here is its food. “This concept required food that could overpower the mime aspect and lead the restaurant. A guest would come here for the service concept but would come repeatedly for the food. It is a high-end, global restaurant in terms of quality and in terms of décor it is comfortable and not starkly Indian. It is an atypical Indian restaurant,” avers Issar.
Founded by Issar and Anuj Shah in October 2014, Squaremeal Foods is based upon two core values – to generate wealth for the society at large in addition to individual wealth, and integrity and commitment are more important than capability and skill. The service concept of Mirchi & Mime is inspired by the SIGNS restaurant in Toronto which is staffed with hearing impaired servers, bartenders, kitchen staff and hosts. “Around the time we found this company we met two gentlemen, running a staffing solutions company, to become our angel investors. They had seen a video of the SIGNS restaurant in Toronto which employs deaf and mute people to serve. They shared this idea with us and since it was aligned with our values, we decided to open a restaurant that would do the same. However unlike SIGNS, our restaurant is not a high-street restaurant but a high-end one.”
Training to serve
Recruiting and training the staff was a long drawn process. The company recruited 27 staff members from various hearing and speech impaired colleges and job fairs including – Rochiram T Thadani High School for Hearing Handicapped in Chembur, Mumbai, National Society for Equal Opportunities for the Handicapped, India (NASEOH, India), amongst others. “While we were interviewing them, their entire family had to be interviewed since they were skeptical as to how their children would be treated in the outside world. First we had to convince the family and then their children. Some of these boys and girls had worked in HyperCITY, Café Coffee Day, while others didn’t have a prior work experience. We also paid them 30 per cent more than the present market rate,” mentions Issar. Upon recruitment, an eight week training programme was devised. It had three modules – life sciences, job readiness and basic English language. Dr Reddy’s Foundation, a non-profit partner of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, came in as the company’s partner. The eight week training was with Dr Reddy’s Foundation held in a facility within NASEOH. “We had hired a training head and head of operations for executing the programme. We also took the boys and girls to Anjuman Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Technology where they served in its restaurant for two days and also Sheila Raheja Institute of Hotel Management. After the eight week training was over, we trained them for six more weeks at our restaurant and did a further two week training by inviting friends and family into the restaurant,” explains Issar adding, “We created this restaurant not to generate sympathy for the staff but to suggest that they are far more hospitable, focused, enthusiastic, intuitive and better servers than normal people. We have taken them for their ability and not disability.”
Spreading the word
The founders of Mirchi & Mime believe in giving the best dining experiences to their guests so that they come back for more and also spread the word about their restaurant. “We are letting the customer speak for himself about his dining experience on Zomato, etc. We also have a website and a Facebook page,” points out Issar. More than a month into operation, the company has also chalked out an ambitious expansion plan. “We are going to open 21 such restaurants in three years – 18 in India and one in Singapore, Dubai and London. We will be employing over 400 such staff in India. Some of the staff at this restaurant will become supervisors and managers in our future restaurants. This year we will open three – another in Mumbai, one in Bengaluru and Kolkata. The expansion will be in three phases. In times to come we might have venture capital investments. A restaurant like this usually involves an investment of around Rs three crore and as we master the concept the investment will come down to around Rs two crore,” concludes Issar.