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Three's a crowd, they say, but Chandrajeet `Hardy' Mitra, Deepak Aggarwal and Krishna Shriram have been trying hard to prove that three can be company too. In September 1998 they launched their company, Funkaliscious Hospitality ,which opened its first restaurant in Nehru Place, New Delhi, in January 1999 called Soul Kitchen, with "food, music and peace".

With an investment of Rs 50 lakh so far, Soul Kitchen is yet to turn profitable, but the trio is hopeful that when they get their liquor licence, which they expect in Januray next year, they will begin to make operating profits almost immediately. Today their monthly turnover, at the best of times, is Rs 7 lakh.

 

The three partners come from similar backgrounds. For Krishna, whose father is industrialist Sidharth Shriram, doing business is what comes most naturally. So too for Aggarwal who has an MBA from Georgetown University in the US and also plans to launch a ready-to-wear label in the Indian market. Hardy, who has studied fashion as well as trained to be a chef in Paris ,is the operations man. Here is how the three work together at Soul Kitchen.

Hardy: When I returned to Delhi I opened a restaurant here in 1997 called Chez Nathalie. It was a French restaurant that served continental food too. But it was located near Gurgaon and I was looking to move into town when I spoke to Deepak and Krishna.

Shriram: I had, in the meantime, worked in some of my father's companies, but had taken time off to travel around. By then I had realised that there are a lot of things in business that aren't really of any net value to the earth. But food is a natural business. And I see some union of spirituality and business here. At the end of the day it is all about feeding people.

Hardy: In one of our brainstorming sessions Deepak came up with the name Soul Kitchen.

Aggarwal: We had a clear storyboard from the beginning. We wanted a European-style restaurant that served value-for-money food

Shriram: We put in a total of Rs 50 lakh. We have all made an equal investment and will have an equal share of the booty when we start making money. That is the only way a partnership can work.

Aggarwal: Hardy is the operations man who looks after everything from the menu to managing the staff of 28. Every Tuesday we have a review meeting to thrash out any problems. Only if we are doing anything new or different do we meet more often, otherwise we are always on the phone.

Shriram: Soul Kitchen is a place where you can come and relax. It is simply an extension of us at home. We have also tied up with art gallery Nature Morte and the paintings on the walls are up for sale. The music we play is "ambient" music and you can choose a book from a range that includes both Jackie Collins and Krishnamurthy, while you sip our special Italiano coffee. We change the interiors of the restaurant to match the changing season.

Hardy: We are competing with five-star hotels that provide the same cuisine. Everyone does not like the formal ambience of a five-star hotel. But in Delhi the problem was that only these hotels served good continental food. So we are giving you great ambience and food at half the price.

Aggarwal: The bottomline is that we are good friends as well as being partners. And it is alway