India’s Flavor in Glendale is preparing guests for a taste of entertainment as it opens a second location in downtown Glendale in mid-July. The family-owned restaurant is planning to offer Indian movie nights, live music performances and other shows at the new, 130-seat restaurant located at 156 S. Brand Blvd., said Punardeep Sikka, the owners’ son and manager for the new restaurant. Early next year, the owners plan to extend the restaurant’s hours to 2 a.m., launch an after-hours menu and offer some dancing, he said. “We’re expecting our initial (revenue) growth to be much faster, since we have something more to offer the clients,” Sikka said. Restaurant consultants say broadening the scope of the business could be a money maker if done correctly, but without the right level of preparation it could lead to failure. “Entertainment is an entirely different market than the food business,” said Mike Gilles, co-founder and chairman of the Food Consultants Group, a Southern California alliance of food industry consultants. The original India’s Flavor opened six years ago at 3303 N. Verdugo Road in Glendale and will remain family-owned and operated. The family decided to open a second location, because of growth in the number of customers dining at its original location, which only seats about 30 people, Sikka said. Incorporating live entertainment at the new restaurant was always part of the family’s plan – but not an immediate priority – until the family decided on the Brand Boulevard location, Sikka said. The venue was a former jazz club, so it already had a stage and some of the necessary permits needed for offering live entertainment. That made it easy for the family to kick-start the entertainment right away, Sikka said. Longer business hours, combined with the added alcohol sales, will likely boost revenues by about 25 percent, Sikka said. That’s compared with potential revenues, if the restaurant did not offer entertainment, he said. The need to coordinate the performers sooner than originally planned is one new challenge, Sikka said. He and his parents also have to deal with a small kitchen and the need to train about 15 to 20 more employees. Critical questions Gilles, of the Food Consultants Group, said making the transition from a traditional restaurant to an entertainment-related establishment is not always successful. “A lot of entertainment concepts I have seen are in and out quickly,” he said. Transitioning restaurant owners should ask themselves whether they have the necessary skills for managing an entertainment venue, whether they are willing to adjust to the later hours, and whether they will need to target a new type of customer, Gilles said. Carrie Kommers, president of culinary marketing consulting company Table One Marketing in Los Angeles, said making the switch also requires looking beyond routine. “The goal is to try to do something new,” Kommers said. “They may just need to do their homework a little better.” Kevin Aksacki, owner of Gaucho’s Village, a Brazilian steakhouse in Glendale, said having live entertainment has helped his 10-year-old business. He said that’s how he differentiates his restaurant from other Brazilian restaurants that claim to be authentic, but are owned by people of other cultures. “It saved us through the recession,” Aksacki said. However, he said, economic pressures have prompted him to cut down the number of live music performances each week to save on costs. He said he is also careful to limit the more expensive performances to weekends. Sikka’s father, Jagjit Sikka, said he hopes to see his restaurant expansion thrive. “We would like to have people being more aware of Indian culture and what it is,” he said.
India’s Flavor Expands to Offer Cultural Entertainment
