Nothing a little truffle oil, crepes and a killer roast beef sandwich can’t cure

Cafe Flo's owner's son readies for entrepreneurial debut with intimate cafe.

KARACHI: “This bread definitely tastes better,” 28-year-old Sikander Rizvi murmurs to his mother Florence Villiers, the owner of the popular Café Flo. The two are having a quiet bread tasting as Sikander readies for his entrepreneurial debut: an intimate 600-square foot cafe housed at boutique Ensemble in Clifton Block 4, just a lane over from his mother’s establishment.

“The recession has definitely not hit the restaurant business,” he says. “There really isn’t much else to do in the city and people still feel the need to get away from their daily stress.” Indeed, a good restaurant offering gourmet food is an “untouched market” in the city and Sikander knows it.

For his new place, which he hopes to open in two months, he plans to serve a limited variety of soups, internationally inspired sandwiches, crepes and drinks.

Sikander has long lamented Karachi’s inability to produce a proper flaky croissant or gum-tearing baguette. “Bread is key. Regular bread is just boring; baking your own bread can make all the difference,” he says as he describes a roast beef sandwich he plans to serve: “Home-made mayonnaise, crunch onions, truffle oil, herb and garlic butter and our own marinated roast beef.”

The 20- to 25-seat restaurant is being pegged as a “lifestyle cafe” by the owner who went to great lengths to ensure it isn’t mistaken for a “fast-food joint.” Good, fresh and unique food is something Sikander hopes to bring to the table upon his return to Pakistan after eight years of training. “I went to hospitality school in Switzerland and worked in hotels in South Africa and Amsterdam,” he says, admitting, however, that Karachi is not an “easy market”.

For instance, good managers are very important and therefore very hard to find. Finding an honest manager has not been the problem but finding a competent one is. This is perhaps why Cafe Flo’s current staff will be heavily relied on for the initial phase of the new cafe. “But I plan to slowly train and staff a new team there,” he says. He feels that it takes seven months to know whether a restaurant will ‘pick up’ or not. And if it does in the given timeframe, it will take about a year and a half to start expanding.

Switching flavours to talk about Cafe Flo, Sikander says he is grateful for the assosciation but wants his new place to create its own identity. “My mom has done a great job with this restaurant but I want something different,” he says, adding “We’re still trying to play around and finalise flavours, brainstorm and develop a completely new menu.” Bon chance.

Sikander on the side

• Born in Hyeres, France


• Despises Mongolian cuisine


• Loves Japanese food


• Plan B: If the new place doesn’t do well people have been asking them for a long time to open a Cafe Flo in Lahore


• Mom is financing the new restaurant


• No comment on settling down yet


• On his own time, loves hanging with friends at the beach, travelling and watching TV


• Favourite item on Flo menu: Salad de Crabe (grapefruit salad with crab, seasonal) and can make it himself

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2010.