Hyderabad-Born Conçu Turns an Old Colaba Print House into a Café-by-Day, Bar-by-Night

Conçu, a patisserie-café born in Hyderabad in 2012, opened its first store in June 2026, in its 14th year, on Pasta Lane, a back alley in South Mumbai's Colaba. The property is a former print house. Mumbai design firm Essajees Atelier has turned the roughly 2,700-square-foot, 50-seat space into a single-building format that changes face — a café by day, a cocktail bar by night. A brand that built its following in a regional city choosing to move into a big city not through a prime location but through an "old building down a back alley" — this move gives Japanese companies considering entry into India's food-service market reason to rethink their approach to location strategy and spatial design.

A Hyderabad-Born Brand Chose an Old Mumbai Print House

Conçu's founders are a husband-and-wife pair with engineering backgrounds, Swati Upadhyay and chef Sahil Taneja. They started as a small patisserie in Hyderabad in 2012 and later expanded into Bengaluru. In their 14th year, they took the step into Mumbai, India's largest commercial city.

What stands out is the choice of location. The new store isn't on Colaba's main thoroughfare but stands on a quiet back alley called Pasta Lane. The building is a former print house, a triple-height space (ceilings spanning three stories) that retains decades-old stone walls, exposed brick, and bare wooden beams. Sarah Sham of Essajees Atelier, who led the design, chose not to build a new box but instead turned the weight of South Mumbai's old architecture directly into the store's asset. The roughly 2,700-square-foot interior is divided into window-side corner seats, sofa seats, and a large communal table, centered around a long island counter that shows off dessert-making and coffee extraction.

Why Are Regional Brands Now Targeting 'Non-Prime' Locations in Big Cities?

India's food-service scene has shifted in recent years from "filling up cheaply" toward "paying for time and experience." The segment of urban consumers willing to visit a specialty shop just for a cup of coffee has thickened, and homegrown specialty players such as Third Wave and Blue Tokai have expanded their store networks. Conçu's format, which extends all the way to evening cocktails, compresses this shift into a single store. Breakfast in the morning, a workspace at midday, dessert in the afternoon, a bar at night — it switches the customer's use case throughout the day, designed to earn through dwell time.

The trend of regional-city brands expanding into Mumbai isn't new in itself. The same pattern of a homegrown brand going after big-city demand also shows up in Bengaluru-born Boba Bhai's move to reach a scale of 100 stores in two and a half years (Boba Bhai Reaches 100 Stores in Two and a Half Years). What's different about Conçu is that it bet not on the speed of scaling up but on "where and in what kind of box to open." Prime locations in Mumbai command high rent and are held by franchise chains. If a regional single-store brand fought on the same turf, it would be crushed by rent. That's presumably why it chose a historic building down a back alley instead — a place where it could compete on story rather than rent.

Verifiable Facts: Scale and Format

Here is a summary of facts that multiple media outlets agree on.

A density of 50 seats across 2,700 square feet isn't a design built on packing in tables and earning through turnover. The spacing, which gives each seat room to breathe, suggests it's built for customers who linger. The estimated per-couple check of ₹2,500 likewise supports an approach built on ticket size and dwell time rather than turnover.

Industry and Consumer Reception

Local media coverage can be organized into roughly three themes.

• Praise for the architecture. The former print house's triple-height space, with its stone walls and wooden beams left intact, is repeatedly cited as a point of contrast with mass-produced chain stores.
• Attention to the format. A single-building concept that shifts from an all-day café to a night bar is described as a fresh construction within Mumbai's dining market.
• Interest in brand transplantation. The question is whether the following built up over 14 years in Hyderabad can be brought to Mumbai not just through taste but through the space itself.

The founders' stated goal of "creating a place people want to keep staying in" is also quoted across various outlets, reflecting a shared stance of describing the brand around experience rather than product.

Implications for Japanese Companies: Think of Location Not as 'Prime Real Estate' but as 'A Box That Holds a Story'

The core lesson Japanese companies looking to enter India's food-service and café market can take from Conçu is not to think of location and space separately. Japanese companies' overseas store openings tend to lean toward securing a prime spot on a main thoroughfare or in a large mall. But in a city like Mumbai, prime-location rent drains the strength of a standalone brand, and it's hard to avoid blending in with the surrounding global chains. Conçu did the opposite, choosing a historic building down a low-rent back alley and turning its very age into the star of the interior. In effect, it swapped a fight it would lose on rent for one it could win on story.

Another lesson is the format's "time design." Conçu switches the customer's use case across morning, midday, afternoon, and night, drawing multiple revenue opportunities out of a single box. In urban India, the segment paying for coffee or a dish at a specialty shop and the segment drinking out at night overlap in the same area. When a Japanese dining brand expands, designing around only daytime café service or only a nighttime format leaves a large dip in operations relative to high rent. The idea of building up ticket size through dwell time and range of use needs to be built into the interior planning stage from the start.

The technique of telling location through story isn't limited to food service. American brand Tory Burch's move to open an experiential café, "The Romy Café," in New Delhi belongs to the same lineage of conveying a brand's brand story through space (Tory Burch's 'The Romy Café' Comes to New Delhi). Selling a place to belong before selling a product — this order is what works for reaching India's high-spending urban segment.

Impact on the market

Conçu's move offers one realistic template for regional brands that built their following in Hyderabad or Bengaluru to move into Mumbai. Rather than taking on prime-location rent, it chooses a historic or distinctive property and differentiates through design. If this template works, it could strengthen a trend of later regional brands heading to big cities along the same path. Apart from the store-network model driven by the expansion of specialty coffee players like Third Wave and Blue Tokai, it means room is opening up for brands that "keep numbers small and win on density per store" (India's Two Homegrown Coffee Leaders, Third Wave and Blue Tokai, Expand). If Japanese companies are looking for partners in India's food-service and food-related sectors, it's worth including not just brands with large store counts but also this type of brand that builds its following through space and experience.

Practical Information: Perspectives for Approaching Indian Food Service

Here are the perspectives Japanese companies interested in India's urban food-service scene can apply when translating Conçu's example into their own planning.

• Evaluate properties on "low rent x narrative potential." An existing building that can be given character through renovation is more likely to differentiate a standalone brand than a good plot for new construction.
• Design revenue sources by time of day. Build interiors and staffing on the premise of switching use within the same space, as with a daytime café, afternoon dessert, and nighttime bar.
• Choose an entry partner not by scale but by their ability to build spaces and shape the customer's dwell experience. Even when partnering through raw-material supply or OEM, the partner's brand-design capability shapes how your own product is perceived.

As a move in experiential retail openings in big cities, Nespresso's setting up its first pavilion-style store in Mumbai is also a useful reference (Nespresso's First Mumbai Pavilion Opens at Jio World Drive). The idea of turning the space itself into advertising is shared by both global brands and regional-origin ones.

Conclusion

Conçu's move into Mumbai is a case of a brand nurtured for 14 years in a regional city choosing an old print house down a back alley, rather than a prime spot in a big city, and turning its age into an asset. The design of converting a roughly 2,700-square-foot, 50-seat space from a daytime café into a nighttime bar condenses a single-store brand's way of surviving without losing on rent, earning through dwell time instead. For Japanese companies considering entry into India's food-service and food-related sectors, this way of thinking — telling location through story and designing format through time — is a perspective worth holding from the earliest stage of store-opening plans.

Source:
Cosmopolitan India"Conçu lands in Mumbai with pastries, coffee and plenty of charm"
Curly Tales"After Winning Hearts In Hyderabad, Conçu Debuts In Mumbai With A Stunning Colaba Café"
indianretailer.com (FranchiseTv) "Conçu Expands to Mumbai with First Colaba Outlet"