A Bastille Day-eve party provided revellers at What’s Up! Café a chance to spend an evening listening to French music and sampling French dishes under a balmy south Calcutta sky.
While the top floor was reserved for a party hosted jointly by the Alliance Francaise du Bengale (AFB), the one below was open to walk-in diners where DJ Arcane played popular French tracks. Upstairs there was Shouvik Mukherjee serving up fusion on the sitar spiced up by cajon and keyboard.
The welcome drink was a salute to French tricolours, with layers of red Grenadine syrup and vodka topped up with curacao. Tricolour buntings hung in places. The party’s big moment was when the hosts, Nicolas Facino, AFB director, and What’s Up! Café partners Anirban and Anamika Sengupta released red, white and blue balloons in the air.
The dinner menu had French offerings like Homard Thermidor, Porc Boulangere, Poulet Saute Chasseur and Bekti Meuniere.
“Ever since we opened the cafe in 2015, we have tried to become a melting pot of cultures. We have served German food for Oktoberfest, American food, drinks and entertainment for Thanksgiving and American Independence Day on earlier occasions. The idea is to showcase other cultures before our Indian customers,” said Anirban, explaining the decision to host the What’s Up France party.
Facino’s wife Iryna Vikyrchak said that AFB had held another party for students on its premises the day before. “So this year, there are three parties on consecutive days for Fete Nationale,” she smiled.
“Calcutta is so open to the world. The city has welcomed multi-cultural influences in its past. This is the 25th year of Indo-French Strategic Partnership. Anirban has a French link in that he owns a restaurant serving French food in the US. So there was a common willingness to host this event,” said Facino.