'It has to be a calling, a heart and soul thing' - the story behind Commonhall Street's Dabba
Whilst enjoying a family dinner in Chester one evening in 1994, a woman was served by a waiter who she would later fall in love with and marry.
Thirty years on from their first date, Stephen and Rekha Fowler now own a restaurant just a stones throw away from where that first encounter took place.
Formerly known as Hanky Panky Pancakes, Dabba serves South Indian comfort food on Commonhall Street.
"When we had our first date, the restaurant was a very big part of the conversation," Rekha told Chester Nub News.
"It wasn't a singular idea; it was Stephen's. I mean it was very exciting at the time and then kind of life took over a bit and two and a bit decades later, it came to pass."
The influence of Rekha's grandmother, Padma, is felt throughout the space, with her image hung on a wall in the restaurant. In 1937, she moved from India to London with her husband and three-year-old son, Rekha's father.
Her resourcefulness whilst using rations to cook food she knew from home has undeniably influenced Dabba's menu, Rekha explained.
The co-owner added: "She was very young.
"People didn't have much food and everybody was rationed, so she made a lot of substitutions and cooked with whatever she had."
After the war, the family moved to Birmingham, where Rekha's parents eventually met. Rekha revealed a packed recipe book, dating back to the 70s, which belonged to her mother.
In between the old worn pages lie stacks of newspaper cuttings, letters from late relatives and recipe upon recipe, passed down through generations.
Rekha described how the range of cultural influence reflected through the recipes in the book is emblematic of Dabba's menu.
She said: "We are not a typical Indian restaurant; we will never be because I grew up in Birmingham. I didn't grow up in India.
"We're not confined to being purists, we don't see ourselves as purists and you know we must recreate the traditional ancient recipes because of course neither of us grew up with those.
"We were from families that had many different influences on them. Food changes when you travel, or when you resettle and relocate.
"I would say that many of our dishes have a real mix of influences within them. It's wonderful to have a unique offering and I think that's what we're trying to do here."
Some locals might recall the building as the former home of Hanky Panky Pancakes, which opened in 2014.
"At the time there weren't any pancake restaurants in Chester, there weren't really any places to get those kinds of interesting combinations," Rekha said.
When the pandemic struck, the duo found less demand for pancakes and a lot of time on their hands. They explored different avenues for the restaurant, which had to eventually close like many others during lockdown.
"We had to think on our feet like everywhere else, but nobody wanted to buy sweet things because everybody was baking lovely cakes and things at home.
"We had plenty of time and we thought let's do something totally different, let's do some long slow-cooked Indian flavours.
"We started experimenting with long, slow-cooked curries, chutneys, salads, and dinner."
After successfully trialling 'Mrs Hanky Panky's Curry Club' once a month - where they served a five course set meal for 30 people, they closed the restaurant for two and a half months to revamp the space.
Ten years after launching the pancake restaurant, they rebranded as Dabba last March.
Stephen added: "With Hanky Panky, we were still experimenting with ideas. I think at the time, because our boys were that age, it made total sense and it worked really well.
"But once they left home, there was a chance for us to be more creative and say, right, you know, all those things are about us, and about our story."
"I suppose where we find ourselves now is a culmination of those things happening, the very thing we discussed 31 years ago."
Since making the transition, the co-owners have had to adapt to an entirely different business model, learning to work in tandem more than ever.
"You know we had the benefit of experience, and then putting that into a new place, that is very valuable," Rekha said.
"I really think this would be a very difficult thing for one person entirely to take on by themselves. We've got different personalities, different kinds of approaches to things, and yet we see this as a kind of joint enterprise, if you like."
At the core of Dabba's ethos, however, is creating an experience through food, the pair revealed.
"There's a story of culture meeting, you know, it's that kind of European, Indian mix. There are stories behind the dishes," Steven added.
"I just think if you're passionate about what you do, and you do it well, then that's the way.
"It has to be a calling, a heart and soul thing, I think."
You can find out more about Dabba here.
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