How this brother and sister kept their father's seafood restaurant alive

Losing a parent is the worst thing that can happen. It changes everything about your life and moves you to the front of the line. Francis Fernandes died during the pandemic in May 2020, which was a shock to Adith and Ankita Fernandes. The man built and has been running the popular seafood restaurant Fresh Catch in Mumbai for the past 25 years. His death affected not only his children, but also the people who worked for and bought from the company.

"To our father, the restaurant was like his third baby. He would caress it like that, and while I was at his funeral, I knew he would never want us to just leave the legacy. Adith says, "My sister and I pulled ourselves together, and the next thing we thought about was keeping his legacy alive.

Adith and Ankita talked about the hard time they were going through. Even though most of the employees were worried, they reassured them that the business would be fine. They also had to reassure their customers that Francis' legacy wouldn't end when he died. This was a new beginning for Fresh Catch.

How it all began

Francis Fernandes started Fresh Catch in 1998. He had just moved from Honavar, Karnataka, to the city of dreams. He was always interested in cooking. Francis was from a district that borders Goa called Uttara Kannada. His recipe was a mix of Goan and Mangalorean food, and when he moved to Mumbai, he started out in a small space he rented in Mahim and served seafood from the area.

The business got off to a good start, and over time, Fresh Catch became a name that everyone knew. Ankita and Adith think that Francis's fresh and unique recipes are the reason why the company has been so successful.

"Our father used to get all of the ingredients from nearby places, like Honavar, because our specialty was cooking from the North Kanara area. He also hired local trollers to catch fresh food near the docks. "Even now, we're close with those trollers because they helped us get through the hard time when we took over," they say.

Before going into business full-time in 2020, Ankita worked as a chef at several well-known hotels. Adith wrote ads for food brands while also working part-time for his father in the advertising business. But they knew in their hearts that their careers would lead them back to the path their father had set out for them.

Ankita says, "We both knew that one day we would be in charge of the business, and now we are each other's partners, which is different from any other partnership because we love this business in a way that no one else can." Keeping the legacy alive

In May 2020, when the world was on hold because of a pandemic, the brother and sister team got back to work. They worked with Swiggy and Zomato by August 2020 so that their restaurant could deliver to homes.

Even though the lockdown caused problems for the business, sales went up and things got back on track. "Through Swiggy and Zomato, we can now deliver more than 11 to 13 kilometers away. "We've also seen an increase in online customers, which wasn't happening before the pandemic," says Adith. Ankita says that the Mahim restaurant only had room for 10 people, and people would wait for hours to be able to eat there. The Mahim store closed recently so that it could be redeveloped. In March 2022, the two opened their new restaurant in Bandra, Mumbai, which has a high-end feel. The new restaurant has room for 65 people.

The future they have set for themselves

Ankita and Adith point out that the next generation will have to take on a lot of responsibilities when they take over the family business. They say that even though their father has died, customers and workers still talk about him every day. In the future, the two of them also want to sell their special mix of spices in stores.