Dhruv Sincro sheds light on setting up Mr Busquo and dishing out the most delicious Chicken Cafreal burgers in Goa
Mr Busquo’s ad film for a chicken cafreal burger has taken Goa by storm with famed tiatrist John De Silva leaving his audience in splits. Dhruv Sincro is the man behind Mr Busquo -The Goan Baab café and his brother Mukund has written, directed and edited the ad film.
Dhruv was born and brought up in Margao and graduated from Padre Conceicao College of Engineering in 2014 with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in IT. Having been bitten by the acting bug, he then moved to Mumbai to study acting and spent eight years learning the ropes of the film industry. Later, he acted in a Goan feature film called Amizade. Mukund graduated from Goa College of Art with a degree in Fine Arts and did a course in animation from Vancouver Film School in Canada.
Just before Covid struck, Dhruv had come down to Goa and as the situation in Mumbai was bleak, he decided to stay back in his home state. At that time his uncle told him of a place that was lying unused and since Dhruv always wanted to open his own café, he decided to give in to his dream of owning a food business. Together with Mukund he decided to set up Mr Busquo and everything right up from the décor to the menu was finalised by the brothers. Though both brothers are not trained chefs they have a passion for food and decided to convert this passion into a business.
Dhruv explains on how he came up with the name for his café. “I would shuttle between Goa and Mumbai every few months. At that time my brother was studying in Canada. I would often dream about the business I planned to set up someday and the name Busquo came to my mind. Bus basically in Konkani means food and there is a saying that goes, “Bus boro dis boro” which translates to good food, good day. I then came up with the name Busquo which means good food. I remember that it was 2A.M. in the morning when the thought about the name popped up in my mind and I wrote it on the wall with a bit of charcoal so as to remember it. I later suggested the name Busquo to my brother who then said let us make it Mr Busquo. Mukund designed the logo and that is the fat guy you see on our Instagram page.” After this there was no looking back and both brothers plunged whole heartedly into the business.
Some of the specialties at Mr Busquo include Cafreal Poee, the famed Cafreal Burger, Crispy Fried Burger, Sandwiches, Cheese Chilli Garlic Fries which is quite popular amongst the crowd as well as Barbecued Honey Wings. “Most of our customers know us for our Cafreal,” says Dhruv.
Speaking about the recent ad which has caused great excitement amongst Goans, Dhruv explains, “The ad has been shot by our production house called Sincro Studios. Since I have worked with John De Silva and Rajiv Hede before I requested them to help me out with the ad. Rajiv is like my mentor when it comes to acting and he has taught me a lot. I had worked with John previously on Amizade. When Mukund and I discussed about making an ad, we didn’t want to be like other cafes that just shoot videos of their space and food, which is extremely mainstream. I told him that instead of showing off our food and space we should try and focus on one of our best products. The screenplay, dialogues and editing were all done by Mukund and I was responsible for giving him my feedback. You could call me an improviser. When it comes to advertising our products I am not the major player here; I just handle the production part while he handles the creative aspect.”
Dhruv experiments and puts in a lot of research when trying out a new dish. “I am not a trained chef so there’s a lot that I have to learn. Currently I am finding ways to make the best version of Butter Chicken.”
Setting up a café without a hotel management degree was a tough job, states Dhruv. “I opened the café last year and had zero idea as to how to go about organising a kitchen, portion control, setting up a table before getting down to cooking and so many other things, all which I had to discover on my own. This was a learning experience for me and in the last one year I have managed to familiarise myself with the workings of a food business. There are times when my customers would ask me as to why I do not market my café, but I know it will be difficult for me to handle the traffic once I start marketing all my offerings. After we released the ad, there was a huge queue of customers and there was a time when we could not cater to everyone as we ran out of the cafreal burger which upset our customers. We are full every weekend and as I do not like disappointing anyone I’d rather focus on one main item for now.”
Regarding future plans, Dhruv and Mukund would like to put Goa on the food map. “I want to make Mr Busquo a huge brand as well as showcase Sincro Studios, our production house. We want to put out a message globally, that we as Goans can make good films as well as run a successful café business.
I have a few things planned for both the café and studio but I will reveal all my plans when the time is right,” concludes Dhruv with a smile
