kolkata the food and beverage industry in kolkata clocked record footfall and revenues this durga puja as people took to revenge eating after nearly two years of caution and restraint the heavy rush saw many restaurants being forced to down shutters after they ran out of food restaurateurs who have been in business for decades said they have never witnessed anything like this in their lifetime what we have been witnessing since last friday is extraordinary while we usually do twotimes the regular business during the puja days restaurants have done almost 2530 more business than they did during the festival in 2019 i think every restaurant would smash their own record in terms of footfall and revenue in the week gone by said hotel restaurant association of eastern india president sudesh poddar who operates manthan songhai and ms bar lounge advt despite stocking up for the extra business poddar got an early warning when last sunday on shashthi the restaurants ran out of stock around 1130 pm and had to say no to customers anand puri coowner of heritage restaurant trincas on park street had a similar experience on navamii was in the kitchen of most of the pujas managing the surfeit of orders after nearly two years of confinement and restraint people just went the whole hog said purianjan chatterjee who has 38 restaurants in kolkata including oh calcutta mainland china and flame grill said the restaurants had not only done 25 more sales than before they would have done at least 30 more business had there been more tables to accommodate patrons what we witnessed was revenge eating people who have been indoors or lived a cautious life these past 18 months have stepped out and splurged with a vengeance and it isnt just kolkata our restaurants in other parts of the country have also recorded 25 higher business in london bengali cuisine restaurant chourangi had queues and people jostling for a table recounted chatterjeenitin kothari owner of momcambo peter cat and peter hu had anticipated a huge turnout but he too admitted the numbers exceeded his expectations i told my people to stock up well for this puja yet we did run out of some items towards the late evening he recounted advt rishi bajoria who operates chilis and royal china said sales had been at least 20 higher than the previous highest that his restaurants had recorded footfalls were higher than before as was per cover sales what is most heartening is that this has happened despite so many restaurants and bars opening shops in recent times by subhro niyogi tnn published on oct 18 2021 at 0831 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting