- Avi Singh and Rishi Rajpal left their stable jobs to open a New York City cocktail bar in 2019.
- They hired David Muhs as their head bartender.
- Now, all three own a second cocktail bar called Monkey Thief.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Avi Singh, 30, and Rishi Rajpal, 34, the co-owners of Sama Street, and David Muhs, 40, the head bartender at Sama Street. All three also own and operate another New York City cocktail bar, Monkey Thief.
This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Avi: Rishi and I go way back. We grew up together in New Delhi, India. Our parents were friends.
Fast forward to 2016, Rishi was living with my brother in New York City, and we reconnected.
Rishi: After I graduated college, I worked in event management. Two years later, I pivoted and started working for a tech startup where I was leading quality assurance.
I liked the creative aspect of getting to work with different companies. But my work was very monotonous. It got boring. And I didn't like being behind a desk for 10 to 13 hours a day.
Avi: I went to college at Emory in Atlanta. My peers were entering one of three fields: finance, marketing, or consulting. The thing that intrigued me most was consulting because of its problem-solving nature. I took a job at a consulting firm that would allow me to move to New York City. Reality hit pretty quickly with regard to what you actually do as a business analyst at a consulting firm. It was 80 hours a week sitting on Excel and PowerPoint, building models, and putting together decks. I didn't feel like I got to see any of my work being implemented. I had a hunger to make more of an impact.
Rishi: When I reconnected with Avi, we were both in a position where we didn't know what we wanted to do with our lives. We didn't like where we were at. We didn't want to go through life like that, so we started talking about what would happen if we followed our dreams.
We wanted to go into food and beverage
Avi: Growing up in India, food was a big part of our social and familial interactions. That's where the love started.
We knew how difficult the industry was, but we were still fairly young, so we just said let's give it a shot. In the worst-case scenario, we can always come back to our desk jobs.
Rishi: I started working as a dishwasher, busser, server, and then manager at an Indian restaurant to gain experience while we came up with our concept.
Avi: It was definitely a risky move. Coming from Asian households, we were guided toward a more traditional career path. I had to present my dad with a full business plan and pitch the bar to him. But we had done our market research and knew we had a good idea.
We wanted Sama Street to be based on our upbringing and experiences. We wanted a cocktail bar where we utilized ingredients in ways people might not be used to.
There are some bars in New York where you don't necessarily feel welcome. Maybe you need to be dressed a certain way, or you're afraid to be loud with your friends. We wanted to create a space where, whether you're wearing sweatpants or coming in on a date night, you are welcome and treated equally.
That's where the name comes from. Sama is from the Sanskrit word meaning true equality to all beings.
We were looking for a head bartender and posted an ad on Craiglist. That's how we met David. He helped us realize our vision.
David: I was working as a general manager at the time, but wanted to get back behind the bar. I saw the ad and skipped over it a few times because they seemed pretty green. But my wife convinced me to call them. We talked for an hour and a half and just clicked right away. We had all the same sort of ideas about hospitality.
We opened Sama Street in 2019
David: We learned so much during that process. We survived the pandemic.
Avi: It was rough. We celebrated our one-year anniversary over FaceTime. But Sama Street is in Greenpoint, a very close-knit neighborhood, so our regulars showed up for us. The other bars and restaurants did, too. There was a lot of local industry support.
We basically did everything that we were legally able to do to get as many people drinks and food during the lockdown.
We're definitely still feeling the ripples of COVID, but it was a great learning experience and taught us that anything can change overnight, and you have to be able to pivot.
I still get worried about financial security some days. As an entrepreneur, you can't pay yourselves unless the business is doing well.
We knew we wanted to expand
David: We searched and searched and searched and came across a spot in Hell's Kitchen and fell in love immediately.
Avi: We opened Monkey Thief in October.
David: It was very fast. We didn't have to do a lot with the space, mostly cosmetic changes and getting staff trained. The fast opening was good for our pocketbooks but also very high stress. We've all been doing 18-hour days for the last two months.
Rishi: We couldn't have asked for a better opening. We've had so much support from the neighborhood, and our regulars from Sama Street have come in to see the new concept.
David: It's been a learning curve because it's bigger than Sama Street. But it's a good problem to have. We've got people waiting outside to come in.
Rishi: Hopefully, we will open a couple more spaces in the future.
Avi: One of the things I love about this industry is that every day is different, though not necessarily in a good way. You might walk in and see the AC has stopped working or the gas is turned off. It's never boring.
David: This is not an industry for everyone. The reason we've been successful is that we love coming to work every day. We love the chaos. We love the community.