The Recipe For Success

While everyone's been betting on one-hit wonders, Ryan and Keenan Tham have been playing the long game to come out as two of the sharpest entrepreneurs in the F&B industry

- Shivangi Lolayekar

Look around and you'll realise that India's been going through something of a culinary explosion. Chefs have risen to influencer status, often defining the worth of an establishment. Restaurants open faster than you can place an order at one. Bar takeovers make you forget which one you've entered in the first place. Amidst the chaos, competition and occasional superfluity sit two of the scene's most unassuming, established F&B soldiers, Ryan and Keenan Tham. You'll rarely see them at industry gigs; their collective social media is more of a family and friends' album than a promotional space; and they couldn't care less about catching on to hype trends. Yet, they remain two of the cleverest, most successful entrepreneurs in the game.

The brothers, under their company Pebble Street Hospitality, are the big bosses of KOKO that's been one of Mumbai's greatest hits since 2016, and recently opened doors in Bengaluru and Hyderabad; Foo that's India's most accessible premium Pan-Asian restaurant and has 12 outlets; and given us Mexican fare at Pompa in the financial capital. These are, however, present additions to their vast CV.

Ryan and Keenan are OG players in the scene, having first set up one of Mumbai hottest nightclubs Trilogy in 2010 and restobar The Good Wife in 2014. The former pandered to a party-hungry suburban crowd who finally had a classy joint to let loose in, without having to trek to South Bombay. The latter was one of the first bars to hit what was then Mumbai's newlyminted corporate hub of BKC-becoming the go-to spot for professionals looking to escape their work woes with a pint or five. Both are now shuttered but were testimony to their ability to tap into markets that no one was looking at.