Dishoom →
Rich Storytelling

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 this, our penultimate chapter, we’re exploring our immersive and inclusive approach to storytelling, mirroring Dishoom’s celebration of more collaborative content.

Dishoom is at no loss for rich, important stories to tell. From how food crosses borders, generations, and religions, to the impact of South Asian diaspora and cultural exchange. Determined to both represent and unite people of all backgrounds, their stories (like their cafés) carry the ethos that shared spaces beget shared experiences. And a more open, welcoming worldview follows. Our site needed to satisfy and celebrate these narratives, building more than a mere webpage, but a storytelling hub that breaks a few barriers of its own. Making room for an ever-expanding range of recipes, 24-hour guides, interviews, video deep-dives, personal essays and event roundups.

This wasn’t a box-ticking activity — it was about building a fluid platform that could be cross-pollinated with different media, viewpoints and ideas. The storytelling faucet of the website needed to be a place where Dishoom’s community could genuinely engage with narratives that reflect their opinions, experiences and encourage a sense of constant exploration.

Whilst the brand has a strong TOV, it’s in their collaboration with (and celebration of) different voices within their community that helps their content strike a truer chord. Their partnership with South Asian talent is one we wanted to push to the forefront of communications — prioritising large-scale features across the blog, areas of the store and within merch. This was mirrored within the use of Bombay local videographer Nirali Naik and South Asian art director Sanvir Singh across the site, providing a more intimate perspective for visual storytelling.

Dishoom’s impact is central to their human-first approach, a value that was greatly underrepresented in their previous site. Correcting the weighting between content and community within our approach was an essential consideration, ensuring their belief in ‘breaking down barriers’ was immediately represented. We prioritised modules that highlighted social impact, building out highlights for initiatives like ‘meal for a meal’ and ensuring every cultural event had a separate, designated space on the website. Ensuring these religious and community celebrations were proactively and independently honoured, never grouped as one.

We also built out Dishoom’s rich inner world for the screen, shining a light on their team through an Alumni and ‘Inside Dishoom’ page. Preserving their unique, all-are-welcome culture in a digestible, digital format.

Talented storytellers as they are, it’s the facts (not the fiction) behind Dishoom’s approach that have fostered a deep sense of connection within their content. We highly encourage you to get lost in the sights, tastes and voices of Bombay (in convenient blog format), right here.

We’ll see you in our final instalment of Capturing the Dishoom Magic shortly, where we speak to our own experience of immersion — learning the brand’s heritage, flavours and culture from the inside out.