Lahori’s and good food, still a better love story than Twilight, even better however, when the food is full of mirch-masala. Mirchi Headquarters, the restaurant with the new bad boys in town has vowed to take the streets of Lahore by storm. By serving the juiciest burgers, the freshest drinks and treating each customer like their very own, the Mirchi Headquarters might just prove to be right in their claim.
The winners of the Sprite Spice Wars 2017, Mirchi Headquarters, owned by Murtaza and Junaid, a couple of fourth year students from FAST University Lahore, is a military-themed takeaway burger joint that looks to become the name at every foodie’s lips in the days to come. Being both excited and hungry, the team at Orange Ink decided to pay a visit and engage with Murtaza, the co-owner of the joint venture.
How did you get to where you are today?
My partner and I always wanted to start our own work and since we were foodies ourselves, we thought of starting our own restaurant. However, did not have any motivation to execute the ideas that were in our head. But we got our reason to struggle approximately a year from now, back in February 2017 when we got to know of the Sprite Spice Wars through our very own FAST University. The event came at the best time for us. Initially we were very non serious but as we started to progress we started to focus more. With time, the pressure grew on us since universities from all over Pakistan were participating. With time, we became more responsible as a group and eventually managed to win over the judges in the finals with our unique flavor. As fate would have it, we won the competition, got the prize money in the process and began working on our dream startup.
What according to you was so unique about your concept that made the judges vote for your restaurant?
I believe that my team and I never compromised on two things: taste and hygiene. Mirchi Headquarters takes great pride in its sauces since all of them are not only tasty but also are made from scratch. My chef and I collaborated with the recipes of these unique sauces and that is what impressed the judges the most. Apart from that, our theme really stood out from the rest of the competition. Ours is basically a military-themed restaurant with the tagline “make burgers not war”. In our menu have drinks and burgers with unique names like “Fire in the hole” and “Guns & Roses”.
Who came up with the name of the restaurant?
I remember distinctly that whilst filling our competition proposal, my friend Owais and I, sat together to think of the name. Our team had already decided on the theme and the last name. What was challenging for us was to come up with the name that would complement the word ‘headquarters’ well. So eventually we came up with Mirchi because the name packed a punch and also was similar to Sprite’s tagline. That is how we came up with “Mirchi Headquarters”.
What are some of the challenges you face as of now? How do you plan to overcome them in the future?
The model that we chose for our restaurant is as a take away branch located in one of the closed streets of defense as a sector shop, very similar to one of the other relatively newer restaurants. Secondly, as a startup it is very natural that we work on our marketing. Currently we lack in our marketing department which is essential for our business to be a success. Even though I believe that our burgers have great taste, I believe in the fact that taste alone can’t get you customers. For that we need to advertise effectively. We have started social media marketing and expect to carry on at a much larger scale in the near future. Mirchi Headquarters has also come up with very attractive deals designed especially for our customers so they can enjoy their meals easy on the pocket.
As the owner of the restaurant, what are your current objectives?
As of this moment we are focusing mainly on marketing and after we are done with this, we will think about expanding our franchise.
Your food best relates to what kind of people?
As I mentioned earlier, our food is relatively easy on the pocket. So naturally the main audiences we envision to cater are the school, college and university students. Our average meal costs within the range of 300 to 400 rupees which is not that much considering both our quality and taste.
You are currently a 4th year student, how difficult is to manage your studies and social life with the business?
Yes, I am currently in my 4th year at FAST University. Coping with studies along with managing the affairs over at the restaurant is a bit of a challenge obviously but that is where my team comes in to play. I have a brilliant team that helps me in every way possible, thus taking some of the pressure off my shoulders. Also looking over Mirchi Headquarters is my passion. So my social life doesn’t really bother me a lot. I always manage to take some time out for the restaurant.
What’s next for your restaurant?
We were told during the Sprite Wars that with a take away stop shop model we can convert the restaurant into a dine-in model but not the other way around. So maybe, we might just plan to add seating in the near future.
Any message for the foodies out there?
All I would like to say is that I am a foodie myself and I can assure all of you that once you taste our food, you will come back again. The Mirchi Headquarters won a contest in which chefs from all over Pakistan impressed everyone, so there is something unique about the food we serve. Here at Mirchi Headquarters, we treat every one of our customers as family so we are always open to negative criticism as well. There is nothing more I wish to see than our family growing bigger and stronger, together.
