The big question this weekend is which café to head to. The one themed like a Mediterranean island, the one spread over a terrace and lawn or the one serving the pork chops everyone’s talking about? The good thing is that no matter where you go and no matter how many you go to, there will still be more cafés to explore.
Salt Lake is in the midst of a café boom and foodies are spoilt for choice. Twenty years ago catching up for tea meant squeezing into the bench outside the street side stall and eating toast and omelette. Ten years ago, it meant visiting a chain of airconditioned coffee shops and paying for an overpriced latte and a less-than-fresh sandwich. All that has changed, and how!
“Calcutta is finally catching up with other metros in this regard,” says Debojit Paul of Calcutta 64, who opened Salt Lake’s second existing café after Terminal 11 on the ground floor of his BC Block residence along with his brother Birojit and wife Sneha in 2016.
Recently another cafe has opened just across the street in BD Block (Calcutta Bakery). And he is happy with the development. “More cafés mean more potential customers coming to the area. People who come to one café might want to check another out the next day, just like Park Street did great business by being a hub of restaurants,” he says.
DB Block’s The Melbourne Cafe offers customers books to read. The Telegraph
More than coffee
While most of the new eateries call themselves cafés, they serve everything under the sun. The most popular dish at AD Block’s Fashion TV Cafe is Dal Makhni. At BD Block’s Calcutta Bakery it is Crispy Pork Belly and at IB Block’s The Verandah, it is Daab Chingri Shots.
“We had begun with light food but soon realised that we had to diversify the menu,” says Sabitri Chakraborty of Courting Coffees. “A chunk of our clientele comprises senior citizens who do not feel satiated without a rice-based meal. Same with customers coming with kids, as rice and fries is the easiest combination to feed kids.”
Continental cuisine is a staple at the new cafés but there are also those that serve Chinese, tandoor, Bengali, Japanese and even street food.
Garlic Cheddar Chicken served at AB Block’s Tribe café. The Telegraph
Café next door
For a number of reasons, many of these cafes are in bylanes within residential blocks.
Sumana Saha, director of Calcutta Bakery, says her first option was in the mall but the rent there was exorbitant. “Only big brands can afford space there. So we chose the ground floor of a BD Block house, walking distance from City Centre,” she says.
Courting Coffees in BK Block is away from the chaos of the main road but still just a step away from a bus or auto. “I wanted a space for people to sit and glance out at greenery from the window, reading a book. And of course, it had to be a place that allowed easy parking,” says Sabitri.
The entrance to Boho Amigo in BK Block. Esha Barman
Parking headache
Parking space is a deal breaker for these cafes, with Fashion TV Café even providing valet service. “We are on the First Avenue that has a ready crowd so it's good for business,” says manager Albin Gomes. “The tradeoff is the lack of parking space so we had to offer valet service.”
Grubvibe in AK Block has spoken to the block association to allow customers to park their cars around. Recently, The Telegraph Salt Lake witnessed some BK Block residents complaining about their lane getting choked by cars headed to Boho Amigo. Café owner Adrija Chakraborty had to intervene and ask the customers to park their cars elsewhere.
“I opened this cafe on the ground floor of my house, inspired by south Calcutta lanes that are dotted with little cafés. If south Calcutta can, why can't Salt Lake, I figured,” says Chakraborty. “We began with a Mexican theme but realised that local foodies do not find a menu card complete without some Chili Chicken or Fish Finger. So we have gone multi-cuisine and even serve Korean and Japanese items.”
Craft Coffee Experience Centre is an imposing, white edifice opposite FD Park. But they have smaller cafés in City Centre and Sector V. “People wanted more out of the cafés. This FD Block outlet serves various kinds of pressed coffee but also an elaborate Italian menu, home-made chocolate, gourmet merchandise et al.
We also wanted to offer variety in terms of space. So now we are an 80- seating cafe with indoor space as well as garden and terrace area. We can even accommodate pets,” says manager Salauddin Sardar. “But parking is indeed an issue and we have hired security guards who help customers find space."
Not restaurant, not home
The cafés aim to carve out a niche that is less formal than a restaurant but more vibrant than a home.
“Hosting friends at home creates space crunch and has a degree of monotony as it offers the same visual every time. Here we offer books, board games, a movie corner and different themes in every room,” says Shilpa Chakraborty, co-owner of Tribe in AB Block. “One can spend hours here without being rushed out like in a restaurant. Many even come to ‘work from home’ in our café.” She talks of a customer who came over every day while he was on a job hunt and treated the staff when he finally landed a job.
At Terminal 11 too, people spend hours using the wifi to work or study. This was perhaps the first café in the township to introduce board games and books back in 2015. The Verandah, that is built to resemble an old Calcutta house, has laid out games of carrom, chess and cards for people of all ages.
And who says cafes are frequented only by the young and restless? Paul of Calcutta 64 has elderly women hosting kitty parties. “It helps them bypass the hassle of hosting at home. We have even had reunions of people who have graduated in the Eighties,” he says.
The interiors of Fashion TV Cafe in AD Block. Brinda Sarkar
Win win
All stakeholders are happy with the trend.
Saurav Sinha, an AC Block resident, is a self-confessed café-hopper. “I return from office, head out for a walk and invariably find myself at one of the many cafés scattered about. I have tried lots and have favourites everywhere – Filter Coffee at Dosa Coffee, Grilled Fish in Lemon Basil Sauce at Out n Beyond, Lasagna at Calcutta Bakery Café, Stroganoff at Calcutta 64…”
There have been some disappointments and Saurav names some cafes he will not return to. “But a new café seems to be coming up every day so I still have lots to explore,” he smiles.
Papia Chakraborty, an AJ Block resident, prefers cafés to restaurants as she finds the menus more varied. “I like to experiment with my tastebuds and at cafés I can sample all types of food. The rates are affordable too,” she says.
The landlord of AJ 7, where Out n Beyond has come up, says he let his space out to a café as he found the food industry consistent. “The café owners are popular YouTubers and this is sure to ensure a steady customer base. Despite many cafés mushrooming in Salt Lake overnight, the crowd that comes is well-behaved and sophisticated, minimising inconvenience for neighbours,” says Dev Bhowmick.
More the merrier
It’s not just customers but also the cafés that are privy to one another. And their response is mixed. Shilpa of Tribe says Salt Lake needs even more of them. “Frankly, no one goes to the same café everyday but if there are more cafes, the entire industry grows. Just like no single outlet on a fashion street ever complains,” she opines.
Sabitri of Courting Coffees agrees competition has stiffened since they opened in 2017. “But each café is unique. Some focus on the décor, others on desserts or vegetarian fare…” says Sabitri, while also rattling off the names of several cafés that have closed down in recent times.
Sreyoshi Pal, proprietor of The Melbourne Café near City Centre, says everyone is doing their own thing. “I see all the cafés around but I still have more to offer. In fact, I’m looking for a big space to open another outlet in Salt Lake as we speak. I have one such multi-cuisine café in Jodhpur Park and Salt Lake is ready for the upgrade too.”
Calcutta Bakery Cafe inviting diners to their BD Block address. The Telegraph
Spreading like roaches
But all this talk of healthy competition cannot be all true and perhaps a partner of Terminal 11 is the only one who says it like it is.
“New cafes are coming up like cockroaches,” he says, accusing a café near City Centre of blatantly copying not just their dishes but also their crockery and cutlery. “They send spies to click and sample our dishes. Shortly after we introduced sizzlers they did too,” says the man who runs the BF Block café.
He gets calls every second day from vendors offering low quality butter, cheese and other ingredients at half the price. “We refuse these outright but the vendors argue that all other cafés are using the cheap stuff. Customers come and narrate horror stories about the food they endured elsewhere. As for the outlandish décor at the new cafés, one customer said termites fell into his food from the bamboo scaffolding above his seat in a theme-based Sector I café.”
The Terminal 11 partner does not mince words about poaching either. “Someone came from a new café on the First Avenue and tried to poach my staff in front of me. I kicked him out with a warning,” he fumes.
Sabitri acknowledges poaching too. “Chinese and Indian chefs are easy to source but not continental chefs. So cafes are always eyeing one another’s staff,” she points out.
Rabi Narayan Panda of The Verandah predicts closure of cafés at the same speed that they are opening now. “Eighty per cent of our customers are regulars and unless one maintains quality and service, there will be an exodus soon,” he says.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ESHA BARMAN AND SUDESHNA BANERJEE
Do you enjoy hanging out in cafés? Write to The Telegraph Salt Lake, 6 Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta 700001 or email to saltlake@abp.in