Mohammed Rashid, the proprietor behind Little 5 Points’s long-standing Planet Bombay Indian restaurant, is getting into the fast-casual restaurant space.
Rashid — who relocated Planet Bombay to Edgewood Avenue before the pandemic after operating on Moreland Avenue for 26 years — is in permitting with the City of Atlanta to open India Eats, the restauranteur confirmed with What Now Atlanta Friday.
Aiming for a debut in as little as two months, the timeline really depends on how quickly the restaurant moves through permitting, Rashid said.
Specializing in Northern Indian delicacies, India Eats will be a departure from Planet Bombay mainly as it is designed for to-go and takeout with limited dining on site — think 10 to 15 seats.
Rashid said he is shifting to a fast-casual format with this new concept because “it’s too hard to find the staff” needed to run a sit-down restaurant in this market. “With India Eats we don’t need servers and we don’t need additional chefs,” Rashid said. “We have a chef who is creating the recipes. All you need are a few cooks.”
Rashid said India Eats, at 14 Park Place South SE, in the former Weekday Cafe space, will be “very easy to operate” once his team completes about $65,000 in renovations. “Ethnic restaurants have been hit particularly hard with the labor shortage,” Rashid said. “You have to have good quality chefs from the country of the cuisine, and there aren’t any right now.”
1 Response
Another silly concept – why slabtown? This is what happens when ‘celeb-ish’ chefs get flush with money bc developments want the draw. Cold Beer featured the city’s best cocktailer but was called cold beer. that whole stretch of beltline is packed, it is the new buckhead, just admit what you are there and give people easy quick food and drinks instead of trying to twist the concept to maintain your culinary dignity. If you want to educate the market and stroke culinary ego etc, go to a different area. The concept will do fine, underperforming to its potential because of pretense, and yet they will feel successful bc the neighborhood is so hot.