Copycat, cries kebab hangout

Street food joint Khan Chacha faced with an imposter in Jalandhar, asks patrons to be careful.

Popular city eateries are now warning patrons about copycats on Facebook, with the latest one being kebab favourite, Khan Chacha. Recently, the eatery’s official Facebook page had an update that read, “Jalandhar Khan Chacha is an imposter. We have nothing to do with it. Khan Chacha only has its outlets in Delhi/Gurgaon.” Out of thousands of fans of the eatery Khan Chacha on Facebook, 45 people ‘liked’ the warning and appreciated the alert. “Khan Chacha ki bhi piracy,” said a comment while another one demanded they sue the imposters. “Thnxxx 4 da info... I wud hv visited dem oderwise (sic),” poster another patron, Vaibhav Makhija.

Navneet Kalra, the owner of the joint, says that he was shocked to hear that someone was earning money by using their brand name. “I got a call from a customer one day and he told us that a shop by the name of Khan Chacha Bar was operating in Jalandhar. As everyone knows, we don’t serve liquor.” Navneet has gone to court and says the required measures have been taken. “We have asked for a notice to be issued for fraud charges, and we will also appeal for damages to be paid to us by that imposter restaurant,” he says.

The trend is not new — many renowned eateries in the city have suffered similar plights and flagged off fans.

Other food joints suffering because of impostersKareem’sThe iconic restaurant has a branch in Chandni Chowk, among a few others in the city. However, there are many roadside imposters, too, operating by conveniently using the restaurant’s name and minting money out of it.

KeventersApart from the fact that the owner of this Connaught Place shop deals with any amount of cash at the speed of lightning, the shop is the one-and-only-of-its-kind in Delhi. There are a couple of shops by the same name in Delhi, and though the original one in CP has a poster saying ‘we have no branches’, those shops are still making money out of it.

Agarwal SweetsThe common surname also leads to the common belief that it is one unified chain of the popular sweet shop operating in Delhi. Sadly enough, many of them are just different imposters bragging about their sweets, and running a successful business by using the name ‘Agarwal’.