SECOND HELPING

Sandeep Verma and Valerie saw their ambitions crash. A beach-front cafe has been the saviour to their soul, and a roadmap to the future

- K. SUNIL THOMAS

We lost everything.” When Sandeep Verma says this, it is no hyperbole. This was, of course, when Sandeep was better known as Sandy, and was the toast of Delhi’s cocktail circuit. He was the go-to for everything academic about alcoholic beverages in the nascent industry.

But nothing lasts forever. The story of Sandeep and wife Valerie is the stuff feel-good flicks are made of. More than a post-Covid ‘fall and rise’ story, it has lessons in a world where change, natural and technological, is throwing existential challenges at everyone around us. And perhaps, just perhaps, this story of picking oneself up after falling down, and holding close one’s basic tenets of human connection, could resonate in this post-AI landscape.

Their paths crossed while working at Mumbai’s Leela ages ago. Together, they ventured into one ambitious project after another in the heady post-liberalisation days of the late 1990s, when opportunities seemed endless, and theirs for the taking.

Their nouvelle venture was India’s first-ever school for bartending, Institute of Bar Operations, which they opened in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj. Along with a wedding and catering consultancy on the side, the couple also opened a jazz-themed bar in the national capital region.

“We had people from Berklee College of Music coming and performing [but] there weren’t too many takers for that kind of music,” Sandeep says ruefully. “Perhaps we were ahead of the times.”

While ‘Sandy’s Bar & Kitchen’ had to down its shutters prematurely, the bartending school was doing well. That’s when the Vermas decided to spread their wings.