A cosy little eatery has opened in BE Block, New Town, that aims to cater to the greedy. Called La Hanglas, it draws from the Bengali word hyangla adding to it the owner’s interpretation of the French-cum-Spanish article la.
The place describes itself as a “book café restro”. “We are welcoming people who are greedy for food as well as for knowledge,” says Deep Dutta, whose wife Sushree is one of two partners running the eatery.
The place serves Chinese, Italian and mainly Bengali popular items.
A part of the eatery’s façade
“We were running a home delivery service for five years. Before the pandemic, our cloud kitchen in Mahisbathan served 1200-1500 people. With low attendance in Sector V offices, the number has drastically reduced. So we thought of opening an eatery,” said Chameli Roy Chakraborty, a partner.
The menu has seven kinds of non-vegetarian fried rices and six vegetarian fried rices, with Chicken Triple Rice (Rs 269) being a speciality. There is also the La Hanglas Tandoor Platter at Rs 399, La Hanglas Special Egg Fried Chicken Masala at Rs 249 and Chicken Sholay Kebab at Rs 249 as recommended dishes.
A dish served at La Hanglas
For those wanting a light snack, Chinese starters and soup are on offer. There is a range of mojitoes being served, priced Rs 129 to 179, along with basic tea and coffee.
Books on racks form not just the façade of the ground storey outlet in painting but are also inside in original form. A rack shaped like a giant tea cup has books in it. So do the racks fitted to the back of emergency door that opens out onto a lawn. “The lawn has started hosting musical events,” said Sushree Das Dutta, who runs a performing arts institute on the floor above in the building.
The partners also have a social vision. “Many children have lost touch with books because of online classes during the pandemic years and are now addicted to the mobile. The situation is worse for underprivileged children who do not get textual material at home. We have kept some reference books for school texts of classes III to X. Though the cafe's hours are from 12noon to 10pm, we will keep the doors open for children of local caretakers and such from 10am to 12noon. They can come and study here without ordering anything and use the reference books. There are also Bengali comic books if they want to entertain themselves,” said Sushree.