Teppanyaki chefs, Investment Bankers, and a Brand experience.

What's the first thing that stands out at a Teppanyaki restaurant? Showmanship. Yep, that is right. But if you look beyond the veil of smoking hot meat, and the Chef's acrobatics you'll see her expertise, mastery, and precision. It takes significant skills to be a Teppanyaki chef in addition to possessing all the skills a gourmet chef will need.

Teppanyaki dining is to food, what #WYSIWYG is to web design.

For Mercy and I, Teppanyaki restaurants are always a favorite. Beyond the table stakes of great food and entertainment, one thing still takes us back to teppanyaki restaurants - it is an intimate dining experience. There is no need to wave at snail-paced waiters that couldn't care less, no anxiety if the food turns out to be the same as the menu's photo (as is the case when we often dine in China), and little-to-no wait as your food gets prepared right in front of your eyes. Quite literally #WYSIWYG.

Above all, it is an intimate dining experience as one interacts with the sights, sounds, and the taste of the food, while the chef attends to you and perhaps a handful of others. You tell her if you need more toppings, less meat, lesser oil, or just what type of sauce you'll take on that excellent piece of Kobe, or Tofu. For Mercy and I, Teppanyaki dining is the essence of how intimate brand experiences could be.

Brand experiences are the best when it involves a small but engaged audience.

Brand experiences are the best when it involves a small but engaged audience, interactions with people of the brand, the backstories, and above all an opportunity to engage with the product or service on a level that no digital medium will allow.

We spent last Sunday in a similarly intimate setting; a couple of friends from Bombay invited us to a gathering of gentry from the Investment Banking community. It was an excellent premise with a small but enthusiastic crowd, great food, and conversations ranging from the fundamentals of mechanical watches to Kari Voutilainen's Guilloche patterns. It was just the right kind of intimate setting where one often derives the best experiences.

We look forward to visiting more cities in India and overseas in similar settings, and conversations. So if you'd like us to visit your city hit us up, and we're happy to chat.

Special thanks to our friends Deepak Tomar, and Shraddha Musale and their new platform Pavwow that is determined to simplify the stories of entrepreneurial journeys in India.