Mihir Desai, a pioneer and leader in hospitality innovation and a trendsetter since
its beginning in 2009, has over 18 years of expertise. After starting his career
with Monza in 2003, he founded Corum Hospitality in 2008 and revolutionized the
market with brands such as Masala Zone, Big Bang Cafe & Bar, TBSE, and his
most recent addition, Bar Bank.
The concept for The Bar Stock Exchange sparked during a trip to New York in
2014, when I saw a brewery trading beer like a stock exchange trades stocks,
with alcohol prices shown on massive screens fluctuating according to demand;
if there were more orders, the price would be higher. TBSE, a concept based on
the fundamentals of the stock market and demand and supply. Mihir’s TBSE
stands out for its singular ability to engage people in their menus rather than
simply providing a list of drinks with which they can guess.
He came back to India and launched a similar enterprise. And, ever since, The Bar
Stock Exchange has captured the imagination of an audience that is always
looking for new and fresh ideas. He is the first to discover the tech concept bar,
which is based on the simple notion of demand and supply as well as the
fundamentals of the stock market, and he is the one who has developed another
very fascinating concept — a long-term trading stock at the TBSE and BARBANK.
This enables you to purchase a bottle of your preferred spirit. When you visit
Mumbai and Bengaluru, you can trade whenever you want. It stands out for its
one-of-a-kind approach to making consumers feel connected with their menus
rather than just a list of drinks with which they can play guesswork.
He has managed to make even the most agnostic stock market observers
monitor alcohol on an LED screen, the founder of everyone’s favorite drinking
spot — The Bar Stock Exchange (TBSE) — has already launched 16 outlets in
India across markets of Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and more for exploring the
unknown ways one can make food and drink an experience to remember.
If TBSE started the experimentation of how a bar can interact with its customers,
Mihir is taking the interaction a few steps ahead with Bar Bank — an open air
space of thousands of feet with food trucks, games, and lights — very
carnival-like. Seeing a dearth of concept-driven, experiential dining opportunities
led him to launch Bar Bank as the largest food truck park in Mumbai, and one of
the biggest food truck parks in India.
With Bar Bank, Mihir is creating an ambiance that reminds you of the food truck
park experience that you’d get in destinations like London, Brussels, and
Amsterdam. Bringing his vision to life in a crowded city like Mumbai was a
challenge he took on, and successfully owned.
“I’m very fond of concept bars and since TBSE got such a good response, I wanted
to push boundaries with another concept. I thought of food trucks, and combining
many of them together. A food truck park at a big scale has never been done in
India, and I wanted to achieve that with Bar Bank,” Mihir says. The future of Bar
Bank is bright, as Mihir is working towards taking Bar Bank pan India in the near
future, with many food truck parks across the country.