Hyderabad eateries count losses, shutdown on the menu

HYDERABAD: A month after unlock 2.0 that cleared malls, restaurants and places of worship to open doors to public again, several popular eateries in Hyderabad have gone back sporting the ‘closed’ board.
Reason: Negligible footfall. With no patrons and rising overhead costs, owners of these joints have decided to keep their shutters down, at least for another few months, till people are more comfortable stepping out for a meal.
Incidentally, on June 8, when the government issued a go-ahead for these places to resume business, many stayed away from doing so fearing poor clientèle. “We opened around mid-June to gauge the market scenario. But within two weeks, we decided to close as walk-ins were zero,” said Shankar Krishnamurthy, owner of Fusion 9.
“We’ll keep the Jubilee Hills and Gachibowli outlets shut till the situation improves. It makes no business sense, otherwise,” he added referring to high rentals — of Rs 100 to Rs 120 per square feet —electricity bills and other running costs, as reasons.
It’s the same for Amrit Dugar, founder of Morsel & Tisane Co, a luxury tea room in Banjara Hills. In fact, Dugar went back to ‘temporarily closed’ within a week of unlocking. “As against 50 to 60 guests everyday, I just had about 7 or 10 people walk in that entire week. I realised people aren’t ready to eat out just yet,” he said., certain of keeping his eatery closed for another three months.
And while some are locking up again, there are others — particularly bars and lounges — that are mulling remodelling themselves to save their coffers from running dry. Among them is Air Live, a club in Jubilee Hills, Air Live. Instead of cocktails, the place might soon be serving coffee and desserts to guests.
“It’s a temporary arrangement we are mulling to keep the business running. Once we get permission to serve alcohol again, we’ll revert to the old model,” said co-founder Ayush Agarwal.