Dishoom →
How We Got There

We'll be walking you through the process that allowed us to translate a world-class physical experience into an industry-leading digital estate.

In our final chapter, we’re turning the lens inwards — reflecting on our own deeply immersive undertaking with the brand. Learning their ways, their wants and their world.

A brand without design guidelines, Dishoom has no set fonts, no specific palette, no formal rules. Instead, they operate within a unique ‘emotional barometer’ of Bombay — using Indian design history, legacy texts like the Parsi Lustre and genuine artefacts to build out an authentic representation of the city’s faded elegance. Our team spent hours trawling through various archival materials within their offices; sprawling through physical clippings, advertisements, and books with bindings tearing at the seams. Their references were rich with a nostalgic worldview, and ours strengthened as we too embraced the ‘feelings’ of Old Bombay.

We weren’t just onlookers in Dishoom’s culture, but active participants. We attended inductions — drinking chai with new hires and tenure team members. We learnt their operations, their benefits, the things they celebrate and the symbols they cherish. We cherish them now, too.

We visited their locations, the ones close to home (in more ways than one), and the ones far from the status quo. We learnt their stories by heart. No really — all ten. Becoming familiar with their character's trials and tribulations, the time periods that represent them, the faces on restaurant walls gifted lovingly from team members, the artifacts that passed over rough seas to sit at our feet.

We spoke with the founders, Shamil and Kavi — and did everything we could to turn their words of wisdom and inspiration into reflections of their sincerity, creativity and seva.

We attended the Dishoom Mela. We danced and celebrated as one of their own — because at that point, we were. Quite deeply and devotedly Dishoom. Right to the core.

And yes. We ate and ate and ate. All the good things. From breakfast to lunch to dinner and beyond.

And it didn’t end with the website going live. We’ve launched into our next endeavour with the team already, exploring the vibrant possibilities of Permit Room’s digital persona. We run into team members in the Shoreditch lunch rush. We roll Matka dice with our friends, family and colleagues regularly.

It’s been an easy thing, really, dissecting the Dishoom Magic over the last six instalments. Because we still live and breathe the brand to this day. It has been pitch, turned to partnership, turned to friendship.

And the magic is still there for us. We’re so proud of what we’ve achieved already, and we can’t wait to show you what’s next.