One wall of the newly opened ‘Fresh Catch by Francis Fernandes’ at Bandra is devoted to photos of the man who embodies the soul of this eponymous seafood restaurant. It shows Francis Fernandes, who started Fresh Catch in 1998, posing with several celebrities who’d visit the eatery for home-styled Karwari and Goan fish fare. Some regulars include cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli and Brian Lara, actors Milind Soman as well as politicians like the late George Fernandes and media personalities like the late Behram Contractor.
Every single aspect of the Mumbai-based establishment is a tribute to Francis, including the retro music wafting through the audio systems. It is selected from his personal collection, which runs into over a lakh songs. His son, Adith, revealed that recently, an elderly guest enjoyed the songs so much that she requested for the entire playlist, and he plans to give it to her on a hard disk drive!
“I did not think twice before agreeing to her request, because our father always told us that we should do our best to accommodate a guest’s request. So, if we have three guests, we increase our already generous portions a bit to allow guests to enjoy their food without worrying about wasting it,” his older sister, Ankita, disclosed.
TO DAD, WITH LOVE
A hotelier-turned-restaurateur, Francis was unrelenting about two things at his restaurant – the freshness of the produce and the welfare of his staffers. Every single day for 23 years, he would visit the select fishmongers and their trawlers to pick out the catch of the day. He also considered his employees his extended family – guiding, and chiding, them with equal zeal.
Francis started Fresh Catch as a 30-seater restaurant in a small Mahim bungalow. As it became popular, he cordoned off a mezzanine floor for VIPs, so they could dig into some Butter Garlic Crab Meat or chew on a large Pomfret Hara Bhara away from the glare of prying eyes. And he would protect their privacy diligently, much like the 4-feet plastic pelican, with a fish in its beak, that stood guard at the restaurant’s entrance.
Incidentally, there is an interesting story about why Francis chose this large bird as the brand’s mascot. He would often see it pick through the fish brought in by boats to his hometown near Karnataka’s Honavar river and fly away with only the fresh pick of the lot. Francis decided to fly in its wake and offer only the freshest seafood to patrons, in addition to dishes from his native land.
“Even today, we have a tiny deep freezer because Adith and I personally select the seafood for the restaurant, and hardly any of it is left over for the next day,” says Ankita, who is now managing the 65-seater Bandra outpost along with her brother. “In fact, two weeks after opening, we ran out of all the fish, even while we had several guests waiting. We quickly recommended that they try our vegetarian and other meat preparations while making a mental note on how to plan our inventory better.”
TAKING OVER
The young siblings recently took charge of the family-run restaurant after Francis’ demise last year. And yes, the pelican is still around, though inside the restaurant this time, a reminder of their father’s penchant for fresh catch.
Filling Francis’ rather large shoes has not been easy. Fortunately, Ankita has worked in the hospitality industry, as a chef with IHCL, which puts her in good stead to manage the operations. At the same time, Adith can dip into his childhood memories of sitting at the cash register and interacting with diners.
“My father would talk to every guest who would visit Fresh Catch, and since most of them were regulars, soon they were like our extended family members. Every evening, he would sit Ankita and me down at home and talk about the business. Though we did not understand much about it back then, nuggets of his advice flashback today, guiding us,” he says.
Moreover, the staff have ably supported the siblings over the past few months when the original eatery shut for renovation, and they decided to start the new establishment. Many of these employees have been with the brand since it began. The oldest staffer used to take a young Adith for his tennis classes, and today, he is assisting the brother-sister duo in keeping the kitchen running smoothly. Often, he does not know whether to call the young man ‘Baba’ or ‘Sir’!
“Given his background in the hospitality industry, my father was very particular not just about the way food was cooked, but also its presentation,” Ankita recalled. “He taught each of our team members about things like right-hand service placement, mise en place, serving the food to make it even more appealing, identifying fresh fish and working with a loyal set of vendors.”
BRINGING THEIR OWN TOUCHES
A successful advertising professional, Adith has leveraged his creativity to devise original touches for the new restaurant. The first thing that they decided is to have their father’s name attached to the brand’s title, to keep his legacy alive.
Its logo is based on Francis’ handwriting, while curved ‘M’ stands for their mother’s name, Millie. Other seafood elements are subtly woven throughout the place – from the customised fish-shaped door handle to the cane lamps that resemble overlayed fish scales to the blue sea waves hand-painted on the serve ware.
A month into the opening, ‘Fresh Catch by Francis Fernandes’ has built a loyal clientele, many of them regulars who used to visit their first outlet. And many walk up to Adith and Ankita, reminiscing about their father. It often brings a lump to their throat, but they also feel proud when these patrons tell them that the food tastes exactly when their father was at the helm. That is the best compliment the siblings can ever ask for as they try to follow in their father’s footsteps.
