Lucknow’s delectable Tunday kababs go corporate

LUCKNOW - Lucknow city’s 105-year-old internationally known melt-in-the-mouth ‘Tunday’ kababs is now going corporate.

The launch of Tunday Kababi Private Limited here Monday marks the beginning of a new era for a family which made its humble beginning from a ramshackle kabab-paratha shop in a narrow bylane of Akbari Gate in a corner of Lucknow’s walled city, way back in 1905.

The company’s founder chairman Mohammad Usman, who has decided to enter into franchise arrangements across the globe, announced here that the first franchise has been awarded to M/S U.S. Eating Point, a modern restaurant set up at a strategic location on the main picnic spot road in Khurram Nagar.

Addressing mediapersons Monday, Usman said: “The idea behind selecting this location was to bring the famous Tunday kababs to the doorstep of people living in the trans-Gomti area of the city.”

Significantly Usman’s next destination is Bangalore, where his friend Abdul Rehman Khan has already sought a franchise arrangement. Rehman, who was here to attend the Lucknow franchisee launch, said: “We have received tremendous response to the initial feelers that we threw in the market and I am sure Tunday-Bangalore will be a blast.”

It was only after keeping themselves confined to a remote corner in old Lucknow for nine long decades that Usman persuaded his father Haji Rais Ahmad to move out and start a parallel outlet in Aminabad in 1996. And once again it is Usman who has taken the initiative to give his late grandfather Haji Murad Ali’s humble venture a corporate identity.

Inspired by the success of global giants like McDonald’s, middle-aged Usman had been toying with the idea of taking Tunday kababs to new heights.

The mouth-watering kabab will have its own logo and trade mark, ‘Tunday’s’, with Lucknow’s famous Roomi Darwaza in the backdrop.

“In order to give a brand identity to our products we wish to standardize the ingredients in the same manner as McDonald’s or other well known brands do,” Usman pointed out. “That will insure the same quality and standard of food with every franchisee,” he added.

M/S U.S. Eating Point is a venture undertaken by two young NRIs Uzair and Shakil, who decided to say good bye to their respective businesses in Sharjah and return to their roots here.

“And when we thought of paying back to our homeland we could not think of anything better than taking the ‘Tunday’ name ahead,” remarked Uzair.

“I am sure U.S. Eating Point would be a hit,” predicts Usman, who is confident of going ahead with his plans to have franchises not only across India but even abroad, particularly countries where his melt-in-the-mouth ‘Galavati kababs’ are already in great demand among NRIs.