A new café in Sector V boasts of a retractable roof, meaning it would be open-air during winter but during summer or monsoon, the roof could be pulled over and the premise air-conditioned.
Serra Café is the latest venture of the DC Paul group that also runs the De Sovrani hotel near City Centre.
NDITA chief Debashis Sen with group director Kamalini Paul at the opening
“De Sovrani has a rooftop café but it becomes a challenge in the scorching summer and pouring monsoon months. It’s a loss of income then,” said Kamalini Paul, director, DC Paul group. “Serra Café has the solution. At a time of grandeur and lavishness, I wanted to gift my city a simple, charming and sustainable place to reconnect with themselves.”
The idea was to make the design unique and Paul started looking into biophilic constructions that amalgamated green spaces with concrete ones. “We have kept a lot of greenery here and some mellow colours. We have tried to keep it minimalistic,” she said.
The café with a glass rooftop has been named after the Italian word serra meaning greenhouse. The glass-enclosed café is on the terrace of the Paulis Business Tower near Webel More. It provides a beautiful view of the Sector V skyline.
Grilled Chicken Salad in Tex Mex Style
Besides the 1,200sq ft café, there’s also a 1,000sq ft banquet hall, three different-sized meeting rooms and a private dining area. As for the menu, they serve beverages and bakery items like Apple Butterscotch Ice Blend, Coffee Hazelnut Choux, Cheesecakes and Cheese Mushroom Bursts as well as Bengali and Indian dishes like Aam Kasundi Tikkas and Dimer Devil.
“People usually associate rooftop haunts with alcohol, but we are aiming for something different. We are targeting a wide audience, from college students and working professionals to friends meeting up for a casual chat. So we have kept a variety of dishes and kept the prices pocket-friendly so people can keep coming,” said Paul.
Present at the opening was Debasish Sen, chairman of NDITA, that is in charge of Sector V. “Our state only enjoys a month or two of winter. The rest of the year it’s either summer or monsoon and this unique set-up here suits both. People can enjoy the skyview in the open as well as within the air-conditioning space when required,” said Sen.