KOLKATA: The early exit of city favourites Brazil and Argentina in this topsy-turvy Football World Cup 2018 may have broken a lot of hearts, but for the carcass scare-hit restaurants here, it has been a month-long joyride.Bar and restaurant owners in the city celebrated as meat consumption returned to near-normal levels riding on extra sales fuelled by the matches every evening.As the soccer carnival rolled, Kolkatans got over the carcass and rotten meat scare to swarm restaurants and pubs to catch the action live, ordering chicken, mutton and pork as usual. According to the Hotel and Restaurants’ Association of Eastern India (HRAEI), cooked meat sale saw a dramatic recovery over the past two weeks and is now back to almost 90% of what it was before the carcass scare led many to forgo meat dishes.Song-Hay on Waterloo Street sold around 15,000 kg of cooked chicken a month till mid-April, when the carcass meat story broke. Sale of meat dishes had dropped by 5,000 kg at the restaurant.“It has now picked up and has reached 13,000 kg which is good. A complete recovery now seems to be imminent since people have now realized that the scare is unfounded. The World Cup euphoria has helped to overcome the fear,” said HRAEI president Sudesh Poddar, who owns Song-Hay. He added that footfall across restaurants soared by 40% during the final.At Oasis on Park Street, chicken and mutton items are selling briskly again after a lull which saw meat orders drop to almost half. “People are ordering chicken once again. Some are still sceptical about mutton, which is not very frequently ordered at restaurants in any case. Most had switched to fish and prawn but chicken — which is now back to about 80-85% of the normal sale volume — is back in favour. The World Cup has led to more consumption and since we had evening matches, people spent more time and ordered more food. This has gradually made the fear dissipate,” said owner Pratap Daryanani.But for some like the iconic Peter Cat and Mocambo on Park Street, not much had changed even during the scare.Owner Nitin Kothari said, “We saw a marginal drop in non-vegetarian orders but it is now back to normal. Our patrons never really had any doubts about the quality of our meat. Unlike many other restaurants we didn’t have to counsel them to order chicken or pork. And now it’s back to what it was.”At Chili’s, too, the drop had been a minor one, according to owner Hrishi Bajoria. “People trust the bigger names. There was a minor drop but things returned to normal within a week of the scare. The World Cup has indeed helped as people are now ordering more food while watching the match at the restaurants,” said Bajoria.Restaurant owners believe it could take another month for the scare to disappear completely. “With the World Cup gone, the footfall will drop and there would be a lull. Sale of non-vegetarian food will now hit a plateau for a couple of weeks. But subsequently, it will spiral again and should reach the normal level in a month from now,” said Poddar.

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