Charan Gill MBE and Gurmail Dhillon, founders of the Harlequin Leisure Group, 1990s.
The two businessmen acquired the celebrated Indian restaurant Ashoka West End in Glasgow's Argyle Street in 1984. Its success led to the opening of a second, the Spice of Life on the opposite side of the street, and then the Ashoka Ashton Lane near Hillhead Underground Station. In 2004 their company Harlequin Restaurants has twelve restaurants (seven of them in Glasgow) and employs 450 staff. The firm has embarked on the development of a chain of "Ashoka Shaks" to provide quality Indian cuisine as an alternative to pizzas and burgers in cinema and retail parks.
Reproduced with the permission of Harlequin Restaurants
Keywords:
apprentices, Ashoka Ashton Lane, Asians, curry, Harlequin Co, Harlequin Leisure Group, Harlequin Restaurants, immigrants, Indian restaurants, Indians, shipyards, Sikhs, waiters