Mithai has long been a part of the country's food culture, but two entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to give these traditional sweets a contemporary makeover. Sameer Seth and Yash Bhanage founded Bombay Sweet Shop with the idea of bringing together familiar Indian flavors and modern dessert trends. The brand is reimagining classic mithai for a generation that loves its traditional favorites but is equally drawn to new culinary experiences.
Origin and Inspiration
Bombay Sweet Shop was launched in Mumbai in March 2020 by Hunger Inc. Hospitality, the culinary collective behind acclaimed restaurants such as The Bombay Canteen, O Pedro, Veronica's and Papa's. Co-founder Yash Bhanage was inspired after seeing luxury Turkish Delight boutiques at Istanbul's airport and realizing that while global duty-free shops overflowed with foreign confections, high-end Indian sweets were in short supply.
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The first Bombay Sweet Shop store opened in Byculla and was spiritually inspired by Willy Wonka's proverbial chocolate factory of lore. They set out with a clear vision to give India's traditional confectionery a contemporary makeover. Their menu featured some cult-favourite signature creations like their brittle choco butterscotch barks, bombay's 3-layer chocolate fudge, and dark chocolate kaju katli.
They seamlessly merge Western pastry techniques with classic mithai to serve innovative plated desserts and cakes such as their famous coffee rasgulla tiramisu, very berry kalakand cheesecake, and seasonal ghevar tarts.
The brand also reinvented traditional Indian tea-time savories into twist namkeens and crunchy snacks like chilli cheese bhujia, bhakarwadi dates kachori, and Madras curry leaf chikki.
How Bombay Sweet Shop Scaled Up
Just 10 days after the Bombay Sweet Shop opened its doors, the nationwide lockdown brought business to an abrupt halt. When the country shut down, the brand quickly realized it had to shift its operations online to reach customers and keep the business running.
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As per Inc42 Media, the brand soon scaled to approximately Rs 100 crores in annual revenue while keeping its physical footprint primarily anchored in Mumbai.
Today, Bombay Sweet Shop operates five physical outlets across the city, along with 20 dark stores dedicated exclusively to online orders. It makes more than Hunger Inc's four restaurants combined, with its products served across Starbucks, Oberoi Hotels and IndiGo's international business-class flights.