Byg Brewski was one of the first restaurant of its kind to be established in Bangalore, five years ago. The Sarjapur outlet started just like a neighbourhood brewery and is now a standard for other restaurateurs. The brand now has a Hennur outlet, which is spread over a 65,000 square feet property. Since the very first day, the team of Byg Brewski has been redefining the ‘Byg’ in the restaurant industry. Overshadowing the vast space that it is, Pravesh Pandey has brought in a fantastic hub of culture through his restaurant brand.
Let’s dig in to understand how Pravesh Pandey built a massive castle of culture through his brand.
Building A Culture Of Play, Question, Run and Serve Together, PQRST, Brick By Brick!
The architecture, culture and operations are all designed for one motive, to give out the most lavish experience to the customer possible. Being one of the primary reasons why customers wish to come back to the outlet, the culture is also one of the first things that Pravesh wanted to bring out with the outlet.
What’s peculiar about the restaurant is that it has different experiences for the customer all at one place. Each space is trying to enrich the already set culture within their customers.
Such attention to detail and motivation to bring out the best of its culture caught our attention, and so we tried digging deeper.
In an exclusive conversation with Pravesh Pandey and his marketing team, we found you some gems about how the man brought in a sense of togetherness among his staff, retained customers, and still managed to bring something new to the table every day, all by maintaining processes.
The staff and Pandey himself believe that there are three pillars to his brand that have made the branch reach an extraordinary height. These pillars being dynamic architecture, its people and the idea of sustainability together bring about the culture that Pandey wanted to inculcate within his guests.
i) The First Pillar: The Dynamic Architecture
Inspired from Byggvir and Beyla, a couple from the Norse Mythology, Byg Brewski is trying to bring out the fondness of the couple for brewing beer to life. The brand now has two outlets, both of which stay true to their theme and serve more than 15 different types of homebrews. By virtue of that, the Master Brewer Martin Bernard also accepted the award when the Sarjapur outlet,was adjudged the ‘Best Microbrewery in Bangalore’ last year. He is now carrying the legacy to the Hennur outlet as well.
The massive space is segmented into five bars, a Pavilion, live kitchen, an ice vault, and much more. So much so that the place can handle up to 3500 guests at a time for a floating event.
These segments unite at an interesting section of the area, the koi pond. This is also uniquely a signature segment in both the outlets and also the most asked for place, by the customers.
It is possibly the first one in the city to have a layout like that, with a considerably wide water body constructed right in the centre and a mixture of different experiences for the customers. Touring through the colossal place, you’d find that it is built like a reclaimed ruin.
Let’s take you through a tour of the place, one section at a time, for you to understand how colossal the site is, and how each section contributes to the cultural hub.
The walls on either side of the outlet are unfinished, with original incomplete paint and bricks. What you see in terms of lights are fire torches. This is because they did not want to use the overdone rustic feels, but actually preserve the rough, rugged feel.
“Just like an old fort, we have built the entire Hennur outlet to give a feel of creating beauty out of the broken. What we are doing with the place is building a beautiful place around the ruins, by not disrupting the original eminence and heritage of the place. We tried keeping the essence of the place alive, while making it our own.” said the team of Byg Brewski enthusiastically.
Moving forward, the sheltered area, also called the ‘Pavilion’, is premium space. It has bigger tables and the capacity to accommodate a bigger crowd. People looking for a more luxurious experience tend to end up here.
“Talking to our guests and understanding how to connect to different tables has been one of our teams’ significant concerns”. Our entire team believes in the power of providing comfort to the guests, which is why their needs and desires are our forever priority,” added the staff members of Byg Brewski.
Next in line is Barbyric, which is the bar on the ground floor. This is the most engaging bar in the area. The place has one of the happiest vibes, especially on weekends. Since there is so much activity going on around in this area, bartenders flipping drinks, people picking glasses directly from the bar, the manager engaging with people, the place has a more young and vigorous vibe.
From the Barbyric, when you look to the other side, you find the colosseum. It’s is a fleet of massive steps. Since it’s on one edge of the outlet, the seated area gives the customers a beautiful view of the entire outlet. From there, you can see the kitchen, the water body, the bar, everything. This space is more for the corporate crowd or the people who like to stay on their feet. Visual appeal, more chit chat, and playing fun games is what can be experienced here. At the top of the colosseum, is where we have the Byg Brewski Spinage. All of the performances- DJ’s dances, live bands and other performances happen there.
Then again, opposite to Pavilion, and above Barbyric, you have Syn Bar, which is still a cosy space. Probably one of the most romantic spots cross the outlet; it is one of the favourite places for couples.
To maintain different vibes for different sections, the quality of food and drinks served needed to match up to the standard of their architecture. Otherwise, a customer would not like to come back, no matter how vast space is.
That aspect is taken care of by the next two sections, namely the live kitchen and the Ice Vault.
The Ice Vault is of great importance to the brand. It is imperative for the mixologists at Byg Brewski to ensure that the quality of their drinks is super. With the understanding and passion behind making great quality cocktails, the mixologists realized that it is also crucial to have quality ice that does justice to the drinks.
The ice is produced here in big slabs, instead of cubes and regular trays, to ensure that it does not dilute the cocktail or changes its taste at any given point in time.
Ensuring the quality of food along with the culture, Byg Brewski prepares its bread in its patisserie. Home to one of Asia’s biggest live kitchens, the staff make sure that they maintain the health quotient in the different varieties of food that is served.
Since there is so much activity going on in the kitchen, Pandey feels it’s a luxurious experience for the customers to watch them. With Karari Rotis flying in the air, pizzas being tossed and going into the oven, activities inside the live kitchen is a treat to watch. These things help the customers to know for sure that they are eating healthy, nutritious food.
“We want our guests to experience an extreme level of transparency and clarity about the product that they are consuming,” added the kitchen team of Byg Brewski.
ii) The Second Pillar: The People
The second important aspect of the Byg Brewski is the people working with them. Pravesh always wanted to make a cultural hub out of his restaurant, rather than just a small place to eat out. This is why, he ensured that the people working with him share his passion for creating something huge.
He believes in creating an excellent team of people who share his passion for serving his guests with an unmatchable experience, every single time. “You don’t get the best people in the industry, you get good people, and you make them the best,” says Pandey.
The overwhelming culture of innovation and excellence reflects through the Tattoo Story, a fraternal tattoo culture, every event that they host and the multiple campaigns that they run at their outlet.
Let’s talk about each one of the three, to give you a crystal clear idea about the culture.
The Tattoo Story
Pandey picked up on the concept from the Norse mythology, wherein he wanted to nurture brotherhood and a deep sense of fellowship and community within his staff. Since he believes that the secret sauce for his success is his team, he wanted to have them bond together with a unique and transformational sense of affiliation.
As a sign of commitment to the brand’s philosophy, several employees have inked themselves with the company’s representational character – Byggvir.
The rationale behind the tattoo story at Byg Brewski was to find common ground where the employees could unite themselves through the age-old art form of tattooing. In a way, such recognition and respect has led to lower staff attrition and greater loyalty towards the brand. The brand is something that they feel connected with, for life.
No FOMO culture
Emphasizing togetherness and building a community, Byg Brewski has come up with another brilliant marketing campaign. It’s called ‘No FOMO’, where the team encourages people to have real-life conversations with the people they have arrived with. In the world where all successes and parties are validated with the number of social media likes and followers, people are getting, Byg Brewski wants their customers to live in the present moment, without their phones.
The campaign is limited to one section of the entire outlet, where the customers submit their phones in a bag for the whole time they are having their dinner. Many games like Jenga or Ice Breaker cards are offered in that section, to keep the guests engaged. The brand also offers a 10% discount on the bills of the customers who participate in those games.
The 5th Anniversary event
Byg Brewski has become a benchmark in the restaurant industry in the past five years of its establishment. The team gives the entire credit for that to their loyal customers. On their fifth anniversary, they wanted to express their gratitude towards their customers by giving back to them. The idea was to celebrate their anniversary with such grandeur that the guests go back with a truckload of memories.
The main highlight of the event was the Kitchen March, where the entire kitchen team managed a 10-minute break during peak functioning hours, on a weekend, and marched through the whole outlet. Lead by the head Chef Sandeep; the march showcased what the kitchen team had accomplished in the past five years.
The customers were stunned with the integrity and passion that the team at Byg Brewski shared. The emphasis on culture and giving back to the customers was so strong that even the cake was cut by one of the guests.
Apart from this event, a couple of other events also reflect the rich customer centric service culture Pravesh has brought into the city, through his outlet. During their New Year’s Eve event, he hosted close to 3000 people. Another incidence where people were queued outside the outlet was when they screened FIFA matches.
iii) The Third Pillar: Sustainability
Minimizing the wastage of precious natural resources, conserving energy and reducing pollution are the three major sustainability concerns at Byg Brewski. The staff there aim to serve sustainable cocktails and are determined to reuse and recycle ingredients that otherwise would be discarded as trash.
The Bar Approach: The brand uses bamboo straws to ensure that the ‘No Plastic’ norms are maintained. While following the ideology of honouring the environment, they tend to use dried flowers like blue pea & hibiscus three times to extract the maximum flavour, instead of any synthetic flavours in their cocktails and other drinks.
It was pretty exciting to find out how they buy Thai Kaffir Limes from a local vendor to reduce their carbon footprint.
From sending their beer mash to cattle feed depots, to a completely Zero Plastic Bar, and to using local tonic waters served in recycled glass bottles, Byg Brewski strives to maintain a healthy environment. They also make Aquafaba from the chickpea water used to make Hummus.
The Kitchen Approach: For the kitchen, they use their vegetable trimmings from veg prep for stock. Vegetable waste is used to generate vermicompost, which can be further used for gardening. Orange and lemon peels are candied and incorporated in dessert preparation.
What they follow is a pretty simple approach, which is to find secondary and tertiary uses of the same ingredient. This reduces their purchasing costs as well as serves the guests with cocktail at an affordable price.
Towards the end, we would like to mention how overwhelmed we are looking at the influential culture maintained at Byg Brewski. Pandey has clearly taken the ‘Go Big or Go Home’ thought too seriously, and is doing some great work in the restaurant industry. So go ahead, take some inspiration home!
