PEAKLIFE

Restaurateur, architect and interior designer Neha Gupta is the Founder of Beyond Designs Home and Bistro, a unique concept restaurant where food meets art. For the past 21 years, she has helmed Beyond Designs, which has emerged as leading luxury furniture, home accessories and interiors solutions brand. The Bistro, established in early 2020 at Sultanpur in the Delhi Design District, offers a unique dining-cum-shopping experience. The fusion cuisine served at the French-style bistro includes experimental fare and artisanal baked goods, within a stylised yet warm setting. With her strong sense of aesthetics and deep appreciation for timeless design heritage, Neha has reimagined the dining experience to present a refreshing, Instagram-friendly haven for the modern foodie. In this conversation with PEAKLIFE, she charts out her vision for the brand, and tells us how she juggles the duties of designer, restaurateur and entrepreneur.

Beyond Designs Bistro combines two of your passions: design and food. How did you conceptualise and manifest your vision for a European-style dining experience in India?

The idea of Beyond Designs Bistro came from the numerous dining-cum-shopping experiences that I had enjoyed abroad during my travels. Shopping for home décor articles is a beautiful experience that can be made even more beautiful by stopping for a relaxed cup of coffee with some scrumptious treats, or an elegant lunch or dinner in an ambience of laidback luxury. The idea started from this point of view, and grew.

Just the way the Beyond Designs style is inspired by European art, architecture and design, the dining experience at the Bistro is inspired by European style. It is something most of us have immensely enjoyed during our holidays abroad, and missed once we are back home. We wanted to recreate the same enchanting and elevating moments for our patrons. It’s an affair to remember.

Once we opened, however, it went beyond the shopping-cum-dining format. By word of mouth, we were able to build a clientele that simply loved dining here.

How would you reflect on the experience of establishing and operating a restaurant during a pandemic, and what strategies did you adopt to confront the challenges it posed?

The pandemic came as a rude shock initially. We had launched the Bistro just a few months before the lockdown. Everything came to a standstill, we didn’t know where things were going. Everything was unpredictable. But during the free time it offered, we got down to thinking, until some kind of normalcy returned, what could we do with our resources, and how we could rise to the occasion? As the lockdown ended, we decided to launch ready-to-eat home dining kits and DIY dining kits, which was a big success. And when we reopened the doors, our patrons were happy to drop by. By following the safety protocol and hygiene practices, we instilled in our patrons the confidence that they could eat at the Bistro without a worry.

You have launched ventures across several sectors: F&B, hospitality, interiors, and fashion e-commerce. What philosophy drives your entrepreneurial endeavours and what lessons would you like to share with fellow entrepreneurs?

My creative abilities, combined with my entrepreneurial skills, encouraged me to think of the many ventures I was able to launch in the past few years. There’s an underlying thread among interiors, food, fashion . . . that is tastefulness, a refined sensibility and an eye for details. So it was natural passion, intuition and a focused mind that drove me to take up these ventures.

And my advice to fellow entrepreneurs would be to focus on the one thing that you are feeling strongly about at one point, [and] give your 100 per cent attention, passion and hard work.

How do you manage your time and responsibilities towards each of these different ventures? Is your approach more centralised or do you believe in delegating tasks?

By focusing on one work at a time, I’m able to carry out my responsibilities towards each of the ventures. When I know that something is working well with just my supervision, I move to the next task. Yes, once I’m confident that my team is ready to manage under my guidance, I let them do it.

Post-pandemic, do you predict that Indian consumers will continue to opt for food delivery services, or will restaurants witness a major resurgence? Does the former pose a threat to in-person dining, and how can that be managed?

People are always eager to get out of their homes and dine in at places that offer charming ambiances coupled with great food. We have seen that whenever the pandemic wave was down, we had people dropping by to spend time at the Bistro. Nothing can match the dining out experience. So in-person dining is never going to go out of fashion. Whenever it is safe to step out, restaurants do see a major resurgence. Food delivery service is useful only as a convenience, it’s not a sought-after experience.