When a new establishment opens, it is always an exciting time. Will it be the next big hit? What’s the décor like? Is it just another lounge bar? Who is the owner? There are always many questions. These are also tough times for upcoming bar and restaurant owners. Kathmanduites have seen it all and aren’t easily impressed these days.

Around ten months ago, I was invited to an opening night of a then new restaurant & bar. Well, to be precise, as always, I wasn’t invited per se. I got invited because a friend of mine (an English teacher) had two extra invitation cards and she asked me to go with her and another friend, an NRN visiting from England. I won’t mention the name of the restaurant we went to because I want to protect the vapid establishment (Omerta is deeply ingrained in me in spite of my non-Sicilian origin).

At 8 p.m. the three of us—two guys and a girl, entered the new restaurant that would “redefine dining experience in Nepal and become a benchmark for all other restaurants and bars”—that was what the ad said in the papers. A waiter was leaning by the cash counter picking his nose. As soon as he saw us, he stood up straight, wished us a good evening and showed us to our table. I looked around. There were no other customers. We were apparently the first ever customers of the restaurant. I wondered if they gave extra discounts for those sorts of things.