AB Celestial, India’s first floating restaurant is a four-tier luxury dining vessel which houses a cafe, a banquet, lounge and open-air sky deck bar that gives you a 360-degree view of Bandra – Worli Sea Link. It not only adds a jewel to the crown of the city but also targets at boosting tourism as Mumbai are along the coast.
What makes AB Celestial different from other restaurant of its kind?
AB Celestial stands out from any other restaurant as it’s the country’s first floating restaurant that offers a meal on the water as well as a fully equipped banquet that hosts weddings, conferences to car & product launches. Apart from the mesmerizing panoramic view, the floatel (floating hotel) offers the entire nautical experience that includes themed based food, drinks to interior and decor. AB Celestial allows you to park your car and conveniently hop onto the boat using a barge platform. We don’t require ferry service to and fro. Not many people are aware of the fact, but this restaurant is entirely a self-funded project.
The women behind AB celestial- Aishwarya Bhende
Aishwarya Bhende is a 23-year entrepreneur and director of AB Celestial. She’s born and bought-up in Mumbai. She is a business student who combined her love for hospitality and travel in the perfect form of AB Celestial. Exposed to European waterfronts at an early age, Aishwarya realized how they boosted tourism in other countries and Mumbai being along the coast, and the commercial capital had huge scope for the same. Manju Bhende is the managing director and mother to Aishwarya. Manju is a fashion director by profession who previously worked with boutiques like Aza.
How was Aishwarya motivated to start India’s first ever floating restaurant?
Aishwarya Bhende (3rd February 1996) is an Indian Luxury Lifestyle Influencer. She is the daughter of Chetan Bhende – CEO of WB International Security Solutions. On returning from her travels abroad, where she had the opportunity to visit numerous Waterfront destinations and experience different coastal cities. Later she took it upon herself to give the city of Mumbai, the coastal experiences it truly deserved.
The efforts put in were mammoth, ranging from acquiring 108 permissions from the government in which her father, Chetan Bhende, was instrumental in helping with, having a private road built especially for this project, but the most difficult task was making others see the boat how she envisioned it, which led to Aishwarya taking on the interiors upon her.
The collection on the boat to Shaan, Tiger Shroff, Disha Patni, Shashi Tharoor, Sharman Joshi, Sophie Chaudhry, Anil Kapoor to Bollywood’s favorite, Malini Agarwal. The boat has also been the background location for Nokia’s latest advertisement featuring Alia Bhatt.
When Swarnim Times met Aishwarya Bhende to know about her plans
AB Celestial is the first of many ventures I hope to kick start in the future. I would like to invest in various smaller businesses and foresee myself as a baby shark.
Aishwarya also added;
“I would not only like to set up a couple of more restaurants but also invest in a few more fields of business I’m passionate about. I will also be announcing a new venture very soon.”
Have you received an award?
Yes, AB Celestial has received an award for the best theme based restaurant by Restaurant India, Franchise India, on 13th June 2019.