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Recipe for Success: Barking Deer provides Mumbai craft beer experience
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Monday, 24 June, 2013, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Priyanka Dhomse, Mumbai
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fiogf49gjkf0d  Gregory Kroitzsh wanted to provide Mumbaikars the experience of drinking craft beer. This led the former banker – who was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and raised in a town in Vermont inhabited by just 300 people – to follow in his parents' footsteps (they ran a hotel and restaurant) and establish the island city's first brewpub, Barking Deer (of which he is also the managing director).
He said, “My parents are surprised that I decided to quit the banking industry and enter the restaurant business. My sister was actually more involved in running the hotel, particularly the kitchen. Little did they know, I was taking good notes. I wanted to give Mumbaikars beer styles that most have never tried. I was excited by the idea of pairing great beer and great food in a brewpub setting.”
Kroitzsh holds a bachelor's degree in arts from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, and a masters' degree in business administration from the F W Olin School at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, but the high school he graduated from was far from conventional – it was dedicated to skiing in the mountains of northern Vermont.
He stated that his degree in business administration, and the fact that he was a banker, held him in good stead, as far as financial and business planning were concerned. When quizzed about the difference between Barking Deer and other restaurants in Mumbai, he added, “Not only are we the city's beer experts, but we have also designed a menu which pairs perfectly with our selection of beers.”
Kroitzsh – himself a craft beer aficionado and an avid skier and trekker – mentioned the obstacles he faced while setting up the Lower Parel brewpub. He said, “It would actually be better to ask what was not difficult, because every aspect had its own set of challenges, but the most difficult of them all was to obtain a licence to operate a brewpub and brew beer in Mumbai. In fact, we were essentially rewriting policy and coordinating with multiple ministries, so it was understanding that it would be difficult to be the city's first brewpub.”
He added that people have responded well to Barking Deer and ask when they would start brewing the beer. “Despite the fact that we still do not have a microbrewery licence and do not serve our own beer, we see more people coming in every week. Our dream project, obviously, is to serve our own beer,” he said.
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