Story
From the floor up
Twenty years in hospitality, told plainly: where I started, what I built, and what I’m working on now.
2006–2010
Learning on the floor
My hospitality career began in 2006, serving tables in restaurants in the United States.
The floor is where you learn what a guest notices, what slows a team down and how much of a good evening depends on things nobody sees.
2011–2016
Building Underdoggs
Underdoggs opened in 2011 around a gap in the market: sports bars in Delhi were built almost entirely around cricket. We built a bar for many sports at once, with food, games and, later, our own beer.
Running it taught me that a hospitality business is a long chain of small decisions, and that the guest feels every one of them.
2017–2019
Designing the rooms myself
In 2017 I designed three new Underdoggs venues myself, in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar. Two of them opened as brewpubs. Aerocity in New Delhi and Cyber Hub in Gurugram followed in 2018 and 2019.
Designing for a brand you run changes the questions you ask of a drawing. Every line has to survive a full house.
2018 onwards
Concepts for other owners
Through my studio, Breakthrough Design Studio, I created concepts for other owners: Woks & Pans in Gurugram, Uptown Escape in Guwahati, the repositioning of Nuts & Brew and, most recently, Ālaya Café & Bar in Shillong.
That work taught me to plan a venue as one engagement, from the first idea to the opening, rather than as a series of hand-offs.
Alongside
Through a lens
Photography has run alongside all of this. For a stretch it was my main work: events, restaurants, portraits and sport.
I still photograph my own work, from the rooms to the menus.
2009–today
Mrs Kaur’s Bakery & Cafe
Mrs Kaur’s is my father’s creation. Preet Saini opened it in Khan Market in 2006 as a tribute to his mother, Pritam Kaur, beginning with cookies and brownies.
I have been a director since 2009. In 2025 I designed its Golf Course Road flagship, and I direct its food and beverage development.
Today
Building, and writing it down
My work now is building Underdoggs and Mrs Kaur’s, and turning what works in them into methods through AI for Hospitality. I also helped complete Underdoggs Arena, the brand’s flagship in Gurugram.
I write down what I learn as I go. Some of it becomes a method; some of it becomes an essay.
Recognition for the brands
2026
Mrs Kaur’s Bakery & Cafe
Best Western Casual Dining Times Food & Nightlife Awards Gurugram
2024
Underdoggs, Worldmark 2, Aerocity
Best Live Screening Bars EazyDiner Foodie Awards Delhi NCR
2024
Underdoggs
Best Restaurant Theme Indian Restaurant Awards
2016
Underdoggs
Best Sports Bar (national) India Nightlife Convention & Awards (INCA), an NRAI initiative
2012
Underdoggs Sports Bar & Grill
Best Restro-Pub of the Year Indian Restaurant Awards
Interviews
Opens on brewer-world.com
Opens on sportskeeda.com
Short bio
For introductions, press and event programmes.
Rish Saini is a hospitality founder and operator. He started on the restaurant floor in 2006, has been a director of Mrs Kaur’s Bakery & Cafe since 2009 and founded Underdoggs in 2011. He has designed venues for both brands, and founded AI for Hospitality to turn hospitality experience into practical methods.
Get in touch
Building something in hospitality?
Get in touch about partnerships, speaking, press, joining the teams at Underdoggs or Mrs Kaur’s, or AI in hospitality.
Ways to reach me