Regional food festivals with the slogan 'World of Choices' is the hotel chain's culinary USP, says its management.

Nirula's has sure come a long way. Credited with introducing Espresso coffee in India in the 1950s and popularising ice-creams and sundaes among young school and college-going crowd in the capital, it is dabbling in the ethnic and heritage flavours of India.

One of the oldest hotels in the capital, Nirula's forayed into hospitality in 1934 as 'Hotel India' in Connaught Place with 12 rooms, a bar and a restaurant.

After introducing Indians to Espresso coffee, it set up two speciality restaurants- La Boheme serving Hungarian food; and Gufa, an Indian restaurant.

During the 1970s, the company ventured into the fast food business with a pastry shop, snack bar, hot shoppe and ice cream parlours. The Potpourri restaurant with the first country's first salad bar was also opened around this period.

Nirula's was the first restaurant in the country to have been awarded a food preservation licence in 1947, documents in the hotel archives show. It is now a national chain, with more than 65 locations in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.

'Ice creams, however, still remain our core business,' says Shourie.

The change in branding, says Shourie, came around the time when the company was acquired by Samir Kuckreja , CEO and managing director of Nirula's and Navis Capital Partners.

'Post-merger, the brand has undergone a refurbishing and is on an expansion spree. We revamped both our quick service model and fine dining restaurant and opened the flagship Nirula's Potpourri in Delhi in 2007,' says Shourie.

'Along with revamping, we also diversified into other food retail formats like Express outlets, ice cream kiosks, fuel station eateries to make it more accessible to customers. The restaurant had to keep itself afloat.'

In 2007, Nirula inaugurated the country's first ice cream museum at its Noida ice cream plant.

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