Have you ever heard of vegetarian fast food?
image courtesy Otarian
I was a "hungry vegetarian" Otarian founder Radhika Oswal tells me when I ask why, with no restaurant or food service background at all, she wanted to start a chain of fast food restaurants.
"When I was traveling with my husband I couldn't find anything but french fries and pizza," she goes on to say. "I said to my husband, 'we should start a chain.' Obviously he didn't know I was serious, because he said yes."
And when that yes comes from billionaire Pankaj Oswal, chairman of Burrup Holdings Ltd. in Australia, operator of one of the world's largest ammonia production facilities, you know the financial side of things just got a bit easier.
That all was three years ago, when Radhika began what she now describes as her thesis. "Otarian is my PhD is vegetarianism and sustainability," she jokes.
The product of that research: Two restaurants in New York City (a Bleecker Street location opening April 19th and one near Columbus Circle at 8th Ave and 56th St, opening on the 23rd) plus two in London (Shaftesbury Ave and Wardour Street, opening dates TBD). Australia may come at a later date.
