Changing the hospitality landscape- one restaurant at a time

Amrut Mehta

Acasa was born out of the need to adapt- adapt to the lockdown, the pandemic and the growing needs of the loyal customer base earned by The Little Italy group over the years. As the pandemic set in and everyone was locked indoors there was a sense of uncertainty about ordering one's food from a restaurant as one could not be sure who was cooking it or how it was being cooked. Taking a cue from this and requests from their customers, The Little Italy Group started Acasa, a wing of the company that prepared DIY kits of various dishes for everyone to prepare them in the safety and comfort of their own homes.

Scaling up

From a single restaurant to taking the brand across the country and entering international markets, The Little Italy group; which is the parent company of Acasa, has come a long way. Following their Mumbai restaurant’s success they opened another restaurant in Goa. The success of the multiple restaurants over a period of time, prompted the management to start franchising in 2003, and get local partners across India.

Franchising too turned out to be a huge success and it helped the company scale at a faster pace. A central kitchen in addition to their cheese factories was set up in 2014. This would service their existing restaurants with all the produce they may need to help manage the quality and consistency of our food throughout the country.

In 2018 the company also started to add new brands to their portfolio in order to compliment their existing brands and give the customers newer experiences. The company is now focussing on setting a state of the art food processing factory which would help increase the existing production capabilities, aid international growth and as well as enter the FMCG and retail market.

Expansion no bar

Adding new brands meant diversifying and innovation. The first to be introduced was Akss, a modern Indian restaurant, meaning mirror or reflection. True to its name the restaurant set out to reimagine or reflect Indian cuisine with their own touch, aided by the latest trends and modern cooking techniques. Akss soon spread to 6 locations each with a unique menu inspired by the city it was located in, all aimed at recreating the city’s flavour onto a plate, elevating the whole dining experience.

Next came Tutto Bene in 2019, a specialty cafe and pastry shop which has been added to 4 existing locations of Little Italy, with a lot more in the pipeline, as an added offering with the added bonus of an all day dining option.

During the pandemic, following a strong lifestyle shift towards cooking at home, Acasa was launched. The DIY kits that went out as a part of this were a huge success and overtime the demand was so great we launched an entire gourmet grocery line called Acasa.

A year later while restaurants were still opening up, the pandemic had changed many things and delivery options were now at the top. Keeping up with this trend in 2021, The Little Italy Group launched two new delivery brands Senoritas Mexican Kitchen and Piazza- Superfast Italian.

Starting a new company in the pandemic

Born and grown during the pandemic, Acasa is a concept driven by the need of the hour. The DIY kits not only allowed The Little Italy Group’s customer base to effortlessly cook and eat the pasta they liked, but as an added bonus they could do it from the comfort of their homes.

As a follow up to the DIY kits, a whole new product range has been introduced, keeping in mind the needs and preferences of the customers.

Currently, Acasa delivers pan India with Amazon, Flipkart and Big basket as delivery partners. The kits are also present in selected premium stores, with further expansion in mind. What’s even more exciting for the company is that they are building a factory, to manage the production demands of the DIY kits, and will introduce more innovative, unique and unheard of products for the Indian consumers to relish.

The goal is to change the landscape of home cooking with Acasa and elevate the experience by giving people the right tools and knowledge, enabling them to cook gourmet food at home and also ensuring that it’s an enjoyable process.

How it all started

The Little Italy Group was founded by Raj Mehta in 1989, and was the first Italian restaurant in the country. It started out serving only a small Italian menu mostly consisting of pizzas and was run by an Italian chef who was a part of the Osho commune in Pune. The idea while setting up was to serve Italian food to international travelers as it was a great opportunity because there were no other restaurants doing European food.

Over the years the restaurant kept adding dishes to the menu as the demand grew and to their surprise their Indian customers grew too. This is how the Mumbai restaurant started in 1995 and recognition started pouring in. Often frequented by A listers from Bollywood the Mumbai outlet gave the much needed impetus to the company, resulting in them having over 60 restaurants in 25 cities across 4 countries as of 2021.

The people behind the brand

Started by Raj Mehta, not only has The Little Italy Group grown but it has flourished and is a household name. He has been the driving force behind the company and his ideals create a great example for the employees within the company, facilitating a positive and motivating work culture.

Mr Mehta has always been focussed on working hard and insisted that there be a customer oriented approach while running the company, with consistency a close second.

Even today Mr Mehta, leads by example by being present in the restaurant every evening whichever city he may be in and interacting with customers making them feel at home with personalized service and even going the extra mile.

His son Amrut is the current Director of The Little Italy Group, who has not only shown excellent managerial skills but has picked up and learned a great deal from his father and follows in his footsteps.

At the workplace both Mr Mehta and Amrut function as a team that works passionately for the betterment of the company. They are almost always discussing work at home and trying to find new opportunities for the company when they travel.

The next generation of leadership

Amrut aspires to lead the company to be India’s leading hospitality company with a diverse portfolio across all major international markets.

Since he joined in 2011, Amrut has held various positions in the company, training across different departments like operations, projects, marketing and business development.

“After gaining experience by working in the different departments, my overall understanding of the functioning of the company and all its different aspects, has allowed me to have a holistic view of the organization. Having studied hospitality and worked in different organizations, especially in international markets, I always try to apply my learnings to our company to encourage innovation, productivity and efficiency. The goal is to get the best outcome in order to stay ahead of the competition,” Amrut Mehta said.

As the company focussed on diversifying it’s portfolio Amrut has been instrumental in conceptualizing all the new brands the company has launched since 2017.

International expansion is the future plan

In addition to their 4 restaurants in the UAE the company plans on expanding further in the middle east with 5 more restaurants in the next 2 years.

Cloud kitchens being a huge trend is another vertical they are looking at entering, with a growing plan of adding 20 cloud kitchens in the next 3 years as well.

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