How this entrepreneur hacked Dubai's lunch rush (and increased his sales by 300%)

“I’m working towards the day when a grouchy cab driver or a famished corporate professional, in the middle of a particularly monotonous day says to his colleague or friend: ‘Let’s go around the corner and get a roti wrap!’ I want to make Moti Roti go global and become the Chipotle of Pakistani street food,” says Tahir Shah with a smile as we settle down for an afternoon tête-à-tête about his fledgling roti wrap chain Moti Roti.

Roti is generally a flatbread (unleavened) that originated in and is still a daily staple across South Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh). It is also a staple in parts of South Africa and the southern Caribbean.

With a tag line of “The best thing long before sliced bread,” Moti Roti offers roti wraps, salads, and lassi (yogurt) drinks in a fast casual setting at various ‘pop-up’ shops across Dubai, where customers can purchase meals from street food-style kiosks decorated like Pakistani trucks and tuk-tuks. Each pop-up shop is a mobile food station that stores the rotis, fillings, and refreshments to be freshly prepared and served to-go. Shah has also set up pop-up shops — some permanent, some event-based — at retail spaces such as supermarkets, hotels, university campuses, and even the weekly Ripe Food Market.

Shah’s unequivocal passion for indulging in and sharing simple, homemade Pakistani food is what nudged the young Yorkshireman into entering the entrepreneurial domain. Like several of his colleagues, he always lamented the dearth of fresh, healthy, and well-made fast casual lunch options near his office block in Dubai. Shah explains: “I would just think to myself, instead of eating another uninspired sandwich made with fillings that were either a bit stale or probably pumped with preservatives, I’d much rather have my mum’s humble roti filled with a homemade vegetable or meat mixture. I would think to myself that there must be a way I can spin this simple roti into a gourmet street food concept and give people a delicious, healthy, and pocket-friendly lunch.”

How this entrepreneur hacked Dubai’s lunch rush (and increased his sales by 300%)