The Name Game

The striking resemblance to the international coffee chain’s name may have played some role in its popularity,but SattarBuksh,a Karachi-based café is also generating interest for its tongue-in-cheek approach towards everything they do at the cafe. Within a month of its opening,the owners of the cafe were slapped with a legal notice from the coffee giant Starbucks,but Communication Partner Khizra Munir insists that the name,like the food was meant to be quirky and funny. “The name SattarBuksh is an intended pun. It’s a very familiar name in Pakistan,and it honestly started as a joke,” she says.

Housed in Clifton,a posh neighbourhood in Karachi,SattarBuksh is riding high on its cheeky pop cultural references. They have the Pinterest moustache motif that went viral,pasted across its walls and even the logo bears it. “The youth in Pakistan is very similar to the youth in India. We all watch Breaking Bad,we are on Instagram,Facebook and Twitter updating our statuses and uploading pictures,” says Munir. People posing or clicking selfies with straws at the cafe that come attached with moustaches have added to the the attention it has been receiving on social media. “With the right kind of communication we didn’t have to use any kind of mainstream advertising. For example our tissue boxes have poch magar pyaar se written on them,which actually is a play of words of a popular bumper tag on trucks in Pakistan,which say dekh magar pyaar se,” she adds.

The dishes follow in the same vein,and have been given quirky names such as Jheenga-la-la; prawns cooked in spices served with rice and Topless besharam burger; marinated chicken breast served on fresh buns. “Usually if you go to a cafe and ask for tea,you will get hot water and a tea bag,but here at SattarBuksh we serve authentic masala chai,” says Munir.

While being quirky has made them popular,Starbucks’s legal suit has made them change their logo. “No one can enter SattarBuksh and mistake it for Starbucks. Though we had a strong case,we didn’t want to fight it out because we don’t have the power to fight long-drawn-out court cases,” says Munir.