Mohammed Hussain’s phone has been ringing offline for almost 48 hours. He is the chief operating officer of Varanasi Restaurant in Birmingham and has been receiving calls from around the world since it became known that Johnny Depp was having dinner at the establishment on Sunday.
“Our Instagram has become mental. We’ve never seen so much activity there,” Hussain said. “I received phone calls from America, India, Spain, Germany, China, and I literally didn’t have time to sit down. He’s been a maniac. “
Depp has performed with guitarist and longtime friend Jeff Beck on a number of UK tour dates and on Monday night he played at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall.
The night before, the couple and their entourage tried 10 different dishes over a five-hour meal in Varanasi, and Depp even took a bag of food home with him afterwards.
All the restaurant staff vowed to keep the secret about Depp’s visit to the restaurant. Photo: Mo Hussain / PA
“He said it was the best curry he’d ever had and he even went so far as to ask us to make a new set of food and take it to his hotel,” Hussain said.
The group booked the entire restaurant for up to 350 people, instead of one of the private dining rooms, as Depp has been inundated with crowds of fans as he traveled across the country.
All staff swore secrecy, while other overnight reservations were reorganized and customers made up for it. The group entered through a “secret side door,” Hussain said.
The restaurant has refused to reveal how much was spent on the meal, and Hussain said he had turned down “huge sums of money” for photos and videos taken with Depp last night.
The Pirates of the Caribbean actor has been seen in Newcastle, Sheffield and Manchester since his high-profile lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard ended.
Varanasi staff is preparing for a deluge of new reserves of people who want to follow in Depp’s footsteps.
“We’ve been visiting celebrities since we opened, but I would say Johnny Depp is one of the greatest we’ve ever had,” head waiter Farha said. “I imagine we will have a lot more now, they will follow in their footsteps.”
“We’re ready for that, we’re always ready,” said Deputy Chef Nirmal Singh, who made the food that was served to Depp, which included wild tandoori prawns, paneer tikka and buttered chicken.
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The high-end, luxuriously decorated venue on Broad Street in central Birmingham specializes in “authentic Indian cuisine” and is the city’s largest Indian restaurant. It has three cocktail bars and six private dining rooms spread over a 20,000-foot building.
“We’ll see an influx of more guests now that we’ve had a celebrity of his caliber coming to the restaurant,” Hussain said. “I never expected it, to be honest. It blew my mind.”