EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE SETS JAY RAHMAN’S FOOD CONCEPTS APART

You could say that the mark of a successful restauranteur is not that his or her establishment consistently achieves rave reviews, or has a long waiting list for bookings. What marks them out is not repeating the same restaurant concept, but presenting customers with something new.

Jay Rahman, 34, is the man behind Prithvi, the hugely successful Indian restaurant on Bath Road in Cheltenham. Jay took on the restaurant from his uncle in 2011 and over the last ten years has completely transformed what was a traditional Indian restaurant, formerly known as Hassan’s, into a contemporary eatery.

Prithvi serves the beautiful fresh Indian dishes Jay enjoyed while growing up, adapted to fine dining, along with a service to match.

His was one of the first regional Indian restaurants to move away from the traditional Indian offer to a more contemporary experience.

Prithvi is Jay’s business, but in 2016 he teamed up with another successful Cheltenham restauranteur, Michael Raphel, to open a variety of successful food concepts under their JM Socials brand. These include Bhoomi Kitchen, inspired by dishes from the South West State of Kerala in India (Bhoomi has two sites, in Cheltenham and Oxford) burger bar Holee Cow in Cheltenham and its vegan counterpart Holee Cowless.

And now this tireless duo are opening three more restaurants in the town: a European brasserie concept, Circo; American diner, Holee clucker and Bao & BBQ which marries Chinese Bao Buns with a Texan style BBQ.

Jay said: “Bringing exciting cuisine to Cheltenham is something I am passionate about. Prithvi offers Indian fine dining, something unique to the town, and with each venture Michael and I embark on, we want to create that same wow factor.”

Where did all his ideas come from?

Jay was born and bred in Cheltenham, attended Bourneside School and worked part time at the family restaurant, Hassan’s.

After GCSEs he spent a few months working in a Chinese restaurant in Brick Lane, London before beginning a hospitality course at University College Birmingham.

Delicious food equates to just part of the whole restaurant experience (although it has to be done brilliantly), the rest is a warm welcome, beautiful presentation and relaxing environment – all of which Jay does supremely well.

He’s had a lot of experience. After college Jay went to work at Hotel du Vin in Birmingham, moving on to the Marriott in the city. “It was good to start in hotels, but I found it a bit corporate, so I moved into restaurants to be able to better put the guest experience first,” he said.

He went to work at Lasan, the well-known Indian restaurant in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. His following move was to the city’s Michelin-starred Purnell’s.

“Whenever I moved to a new job, I wanted to step up and Purnell’s was certainly that,” said Jay.

Purnell’s maitre d’, Jean-Benoit Burloux, had very, very high standards. “He noticed everything and wanted perfection,” said Jay. “From how our nails were trimmed to our personal grooming. If any of us were more than two minutes late, we would be sent home for the day.”

That was a challenge for Jay, who lived a 45 minute-drive away and had to park almost a mile from the restaurant. “I got sent home once,” he admitted.

By 2011, however, Jay’s uncle wanted to step back from running Hassan’s in Cheltenham, so Jay bought the business and took over the management.

“Hassan’s had had a great reputation, but I wanted to make my own mark on the business and bring fresh ideas to the table.”

That couldn’t be done overnight, Jay spent months working with the restaurant’s incumbent chefs to develop new menus and recruited a friend he’d worked with in Birmingham, Liz Markvadt, to run frontof-house. Alongside his original chefs, Jay recruited new ones to mix up the knowledge and experience in his kitchens.

It was only when that he felt confident that he gave the restaurant its new name, Prithvi.

“I wanted to show our customers that I cared about creating an unforgettable experience. I know that by prioritising delicious food and creating the right atmosphere, rather than focussing on the bottom line, guests would return and the business would prosper.”

After just six months it was clear the new concept was working. “We were fully booked for months, with a waiting list for Fridays and Saturdays.”

“In 2015, just three years after opening, Prithvi won a national restaurant award in London. That same year we were among the top ten restaurants for Traveller’s Choice.”

But Jay has never been complacent and his biggest challenge, in the form of the pandemic, was yet to come.

Few in the industry realised that it would be more than a year before they could open up again. “At the beginning the government were saying that people shouldn’t go out, but they didn’t tell restaurants to close.”

Restaurants were faced with an impossible situation. “People were cancelling bookings, food we had prepared was going to waste. It was awful.”

Jay welcomed the government’s financial support, including furlough money, but even if a business closes, it faces fixed costs, such as rent. The last year has been a long haul.

Towards the end of the first lockdown, Prithvi began offering an At Home dining experience which has kept it very busy, but the proceeds from takeaway food won’t pay all the bills, and it’s not the same as a busy restaurant, so Jay is looking forward to reopening this month.

In the meantime, he’s busy with JM Socials: “Michael and I are passionate foodies. We have been waiting for the right time to launch our new concepts and the reopening of the hospitality industry gives us the perfect opportunity.

“We want to bring a new collection of restaurants to Cheltenham. It’s important to us that they are interesting, and we may look to expand a little further, to Gloucester and other nearby towns.”