Ishaan Bahl

CEO/Director

145 Cafe & Bar

Ishaan is the third generation restaurateur of the well-known Bahl family, with Khyber to their name. However, with his 145 brand, he's set himself apart and proven that young blood can be quite a force in the business

Interviewed by ASHISH VIRMANI

The Millennial Restaurateur

He is the third-generation restaurateur, after grandfather Om Prakash Bahl and celebrity dad Sudheer Bahl. Ishaan Bahl’s family may have run Khyber, the North West Frontier restaurant in Bombay, successfully for decades but Ishaan is very new generation, edgy and casual. His café 145 is much like him. There is American cuisine as well as food from South Africa, Mexico, Thailand, even 'amchi Mumbai'.

So there’s everything from Magic Masala Potato Skins, to the more ethnic Stuffed Cheese Naan, to French fries served up meltingly with a special cheese sauce and grilled onions. The Bunny Chow is a variation of the classic South African dish consisting of a hollowed-out half loaf of bread filled with vegetables or meat, while Kurkure Bahl is a crackly version of the classic Bombay street food served up with a twist in the proprietor’s surname. We were, incidentally, quite intrigued by the Red Velvet Cupcake Ice-cream Burger which is the legacy of his experience in America and is apparently an ice-cream sandwiched between layers of cake. “The baseline at 145 Cafe is the food,” says Ishaan. “It’s the kind of stuff that people really want to eat – whether it’s Thai curry, French fries or burritos. We encourage customers to try a wide variety of dishes by offering most of our servings in small plates, with just a few mains, so they have a diversified experience. The aim is to create an environment for the dishes that people love.”

Ishaan always knew that like his father he would be a restaurateur. “I knew as soon as I was getting out of school that I would be starting a restaurant and wanted to do so immediately. So dad literally had to shove me to college and I’m thankful to him for it because it gave me an insane amount of exposure.” College, for him, was the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California in LA. When he wasn’t studying, Ishaan would wander into the different restaurants of LA, and later those of Chicago, as an intern, making notes in his digital diary. He’d jot down the dishes he wanted in his future restaurant, the kind of cocktails he would have there as well as the design and décor references he desired. He was at this bar in Santa Monica called The Bungalow, which he says felt more like a home with its mismatched tables, chairs and couches, when he fell in love with the pool tables they had. He thought it made sense to have them for 145 in the future as well. And as a result, the chain currently has a pool table at all its four outlets in Bombay – Kala Ghoda, Kamala Mills, Bandra and Andheri – where regulars so-inclined may pot a few balls as they wait to be served. It adds a distinctive edge of youth, of sass, to the place, needless to say!

There’s an interesting story behind the name of the restaurant and its connection with the streetside chic look it has. The name ‘145’ was initially suggested by a branding company but was rejected. It was, however, taken up again once they realised that the address of the restaurant, coincidentally, happened to be 145 Mahatma Gandhi Road. So it was like happenstances were coming together and thus, the name was finalised. “In keeping with the theme of a street address, our bar is painted with tar, just like on a road and we have an installation by Ayaz Basrai, our architect on board, that resembles the streets of Bombay – replete with car licence plates,” says Ishaan.

The bar section of 145 has regular drinks plus those with a fun element for the quintessential millennial – such as Tiramisu Cookie Dough Shot! The bar will also shortly launch sugar-free cocktails with agave syrup and honey instead of sugar, which ought to be a huge hit with the health-conscious generation. “This is a place where people can come in their business suits, but also in their shorts and slippers if they feel like,” says 28-year-old Ishaan. “From being just a bar next door, the vision has expanded to being a space that millennials can call their own. Our outlets wear that cool quotient so that people feel comfortable coming in day after day, like it’s home. When I hear them chatting on the phone to their friends saying ‘Where are you, aren’t you coming in today?’ I know that we have achieved what we set out to do.” Yet, as a considerate footnote, Ishaan adds that the restaurant welcomes people of all ages, even 60 somethings. “My grandmother, who’s in her 90s, comes in once a week without fail,” he adds by way of qualification.

Having just emerged from a nearly two-year hiatus due to the pandemic when the hospitality business was hit especially hard, Ishaan is raring to go. “COVID was something we just had to wait for to pass and during that time we pivoted the model to be delivery-centric even as we encouraged employees to return to their hometowns until it was over. Frankly, it was a real lull. But now business is picking up again as customers return to the outlets and we estimate that it will be about four months before we can start re-looking at expanding 145 into other cities – Poona, Bangalore, Delhi and Goa,” he says.

I ask Ishaan what his perspective on the pandemic is, in hindsight, given that as youth he has spent almost two years of his life at a standstill. He replies sombrely, “Something like this puts a lot of things into perspective. We have a close relationship with our employees, especially the senior ones. During COVID, we lost our purchase manager to the disease which was a crushing blow. So it’s not just about commercial loss – there are some things that are bigger. Seeing people die and undergo such hardships is very unsettling.”

However, Ishaan perks up when I ask what the most unforgettable thing was during his student years in the US. He says it was meeting and learning from a professor named Patrick Henry, who taught entrepreneurship. “Professor Henry played a significant role in shaping me as a person. With his action-oriented attitude, he was an inspiration and his course made me a go-getter.” For the final project, Ishaan worked on conceptualising a café just like 145. “I worked out everything – the décor, ambience, financials. As it happens, I aced the paper.” Professor Henry not only encouraged him to go ahead and put his ideas into action – which he has done with the 145 chain – but also kept his 100% paper as a model for future students!