Every day is the weekend now. See how the change has rolled out across India
No one’s waiting for Friday night to go out. The party starts as early as Monday, across cities in India, as people head out every day of the week
Wait a minute, what day is it? At restaurants, there’s no way to tell anymore. Packed tables and long waits now spill over from the Fri-Sun rush to weekdays. Post-work drinks, featuring an office gang of 14, begin as early as Monday evening. Bored WFH workers are sneaking in a lunch here, a dinner here, just for a change of scene. First-dates are playing out at the corner tables in the cities. In smaller towns, students are splitting the bill after a long spell of projects. Families are taking a break from home cooking by trying out a new cuisine. Out-of-town executives are making reservations at the must-try places as they travel.
Little indulgences, it seems, can no longer wait for the weekend. Celebration starts now, and restaurants are obliging in ways they’d never considered before.
A full plate
Of course, restaurants are delighted; it means more business, more money. Alexander Valladares, chief marketing officer for Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality, which owns the Social chain (there are 44) across India, says they offer week-long entertainment in addition to the food. There are music gigs, sports screenings and shopping events through the week. For June, to mark Pride Month, they also orchestrated a queer-friendly Satrangi Mela, featuring an art market and dress-up station. “Weekdays are also packed owing to Social Works, a space for gig workers and hybrid model professionals,” he says. “We also see a lot of people here for meetings or catch-ups.”
Mitesh Rangras has been a hospitality consultant for 23 years and has worked on projects across India. He says a restaurant’s success boils down to location. “A place within a mixed residential and commercial area will be busy on all days of the week,” he says. So, neighbourhoods such as Lokhandwala or Lower Parel in Mumbai, are likely to be buzzing regardless of how close it is to the weekend.
Ajoy Balkrishna, general manager of Fairfield by Marriott in Mumbai, believes the pandemic only accelerated a revolution whose time had come. “Once people were able to move around without restrictions, they started going out even on weekdays,” he says. “They come in later, as compared to early walk-ins on weekends.”
Delhi’s Marryam Reshi, a longtime food writer and critic, says the pandemic blurred work-life boundaries and re-prioritised life’s little pleasures for many urban folks. “The flexibility, the non-structured nature of work, makes it easy to go out for a lunch or a coffee break during the week,” she says. She calls herself a “Khan Market junkie” and observes that on weekdays, the area’s restaurants stores and cafes, which used to look deserted before 2020, are now bustling. “Where have all these people come from? They can’t all be holidayers!”
Off the metros
Ashish Dev Kapur who recently opened north Goa’s Mademoiselle Boutique Hotel and Café finds “customers packing tables on weekdays even in smaller cities”. The reasons are not the same. Goa is not dependent solely on tourists. City folk who’ve relocated here in the last few years keep trooping in, making sure weekdays are “sunny days” for restaurants, he says.
In Indore, Devrat Gupta, 27, founded Indore Canteen, a small but popular café two-and-a-half years ago. He’s seeing locals coming in, unusually, in the early days of the week. Here’s why: Most Indoris indulge in home-cooked specials on weekends (the traditional dal baati or dal bafla). “They head to a restaurant on a Monday or Tuesday, looking for variety,” he says. “We serve hummus platters, pastas and pizza that they won’t prepare at home.” There’s a different diner at play too. “Mondays are major project submission deadlines for students here,” he points out. “So after spending the whole weekend working on their project, they want to treat themselves on Mondays or Tuesdays.”
If a small town is also a business hub, as with Lucknow, it’s a different kind of crowd. Amit Kumar Singh, general manager of the Golden Tulip Hotel breaks it down. “We have professionals visiting from major metros, in addition to tourists from Ayodhya and Varanasi. The corporates drive lunch and dinner meetings on weekdays. Weekends typically feature families, ladies’ or millennial groups.”
At home and on screen
Even food delivery firms are seeing an uptick in orders on weekdays. “Our data shows that we receive the most orders for Monday and Wednesday dinners, and Wednesday lunches,” says Dhruv Dewan, co-founder & COO at meal delivery platform Thrive Now, which is live in Mumbai and expanding soon. Friday rush is counted as the weekend. The platform’s pre-order and pick-up feature (in which patrons can pre-order special items in specific time slots) sees good business on Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoons.
Much of the unplanned cravings are triggered by social media. When an Insta feed is just Reel after Reel of cheese-pull sandwiches, sushi pop-ups, the new undiscovered gem and some chef’s just-for-today buttercream pastry, it’s hard to resist. “Instagram contributes to over 40% in terms of discovery,” says Dewan of the Thrive Now delivery service.
Restaurants also hold weekday offers, offering lower prices or throw in a freebie. Many of them encourage influencers to shoot on location. It seems to be working. “People look forward to what’s coming next and request us via comments to host similar events in their neighbourhood Social,” says Valladares.
Levelling up
Weekday dining has its advantages. Restaurants try harder. Food will arrive faster because the kitchen is less stressed, staff will be more accommodating about your specific requests, and you won’t be rushed into finishing your meal. Plus, as Salloni Malkani, co-founder, Food Bloggers Association on India (FBAI) puts it, “It’s far easier to head out to a restaurant on a weekday as most people who are out are already well dressed for office, meetings, and so on. There’s no need for additional effort to dress for dinner.”
All these perks mean there’s increased pressure to make weekends seem more special. One solution is to not offer their own food at all. Chefs Karan Bane and Seefah Ketchaiyo of Mumbai’s popular Seefah restaurant have visited Pune’s Tsuki and Hyderabad’s Kembara on weekends to do Thai-Japanese pop-ups.
For Kapur, it’s very clear: Weekdays are more chilled-out, with smaller groups who are there for the food and conversation. On weekends, larger groups go out to party, enjoy live music or DJs, sample bar takeovers and eat from special menus. “We have to make our restaurants relevant and highly experiential for all days of the week,” he says. “For a good restaurateur that’s a lovely challenge to have.”
