Sanjiv Chona-controlled Cream Centre — the iconic vegetarian restaurant that counts amongst its regular patrons India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani — is now going national by signing up franchisees across the country.

This follows the restaurant brand that was a part of Pan India Foods, the Pantaloon group-controlled restaurant chain that also runs the Noodle Bar and Gelato Italiano chain of eateries, parting ways with it to go solo with its national expansion.

“I had only licensed the Cream Centre restaurants brand to the JV with Pantaloon group. When I exited the JV by selling my shareholding I had the option to revoke the license which I have exercised,” Sanjiv Chona, chairman & MD, Price Cuisines told Financial Chronicle. Chona, who feels that the Cream Centre brand perhaps went downmarket, has brought in architects to completely refurbish the look and feel of the restaurants and its menus. He has also spruced up the menu to make it more appealing to a younger audience while retaining old loyalists.

The revamped Cream Centres are expected to appeal to families, white-collar workers, college crowd as well as its traditional clientele such as Gujarati and Marwari businessmen and industrialists. Chona hopes that the current revamp will have a salutary effect on sales. “Five years ago when I revamped the format sales rose 40 per cent as we broadened the appeal of the format,” he said.

“We need to return to our reputation established over the last 50 years to deliver uncompromising quality. If that means importing tomatoes from Italy or using a mix of foreign and Indian architects to redesign the outlets to make them lifestyle oriented then so be it,” said Chona. The new introductions to the menu include gourmet veg pizzas, a concept Chona tried at Spaghetti Kitchen, the open kitchen format with much success.

The divorce with Pan India Foods resulted in the closure of three Cream Centre restaurants but Chona now has a network of eight Cream Centres up and running. Of these two each are in Mumbai and Chennai respectively, while there’s one each in Pune, Lonavala, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. “By the end of the year we hope to be 20-strong nationwide,” said Chona. These include one Cream Centre each coming up in Patna, Kolkata, Guwahati, Coimbatore and Kochi. A second Cream Centre is also coming up in Bangalore and Pune, while the third is coming up in Chennai.