Salt Lake may be a saturated market for cafés but New Town still lacks places that serve a sumptuous Continental spread alongside a cuppa. So sayeth Atreyi Mukherjee, who has started Crackpot Cafe and Bistro in DD Block behind New Town School.
“I work for an IT company, and my office is in New Town; we also have two flats here and so zig-zag through the township. But never have we found a cafe to our liking,” says Atreyi, who lives in Salt Lake’s BD Block. “They are either full-fledged restaurants where you can’t laze around for hours or are roadside tea shops where one cannot get filling, quality food.”
The name Crackpot is a reference to the most popular beverages at any cafe. “The ‘crack’ is the crack of the coffee bean before being roasted, and ‘pot’ is the teapot,” says Atreyi. “But then we had a customer the other day who said her kids were the cafe’s namesakes too!”
The first-floor outlet serves sandwiches, burgers, pizzas, and pastas. The Sicilian Pizza, a thin-crust creation laden with pesto chicken and barbecue chicken, is recommended by Atreyi, as is the Aglio Olio (Rs 240). “This is spaghetti with no sauce. Rather, it is stir-fried in olive oil with whole red chilli and garlic,” says chef Saheb Halder.
Golden Fried Prawns
The Chicken Cordon Bleu (Rs. 380) is an attractive dish of bread rings stuffed with chicken, ham, and cheese, garnished with parsley, and served with sauteed vegetables.
For the globe-trotting foodie, there’s Lebanese Cottage Cheese Steak, Ukraine’s famous Chicken Ala-Kiev, Mexican Grilled Chicken with rice, and a whole lot of Chinese items. “The crunchy Golden Fried Prawns (Rs 280) have become so popular that diners are finishing one plate and ordering another,” says Atreyi.
Another starter is the Chinese Bhel — fried noodles tossed with carrot and cucumber julienne, along with lemon and Tabasco, reminiscent of Bhel Puri. And the Chinese Seafood Bowl (Rs. 320) features bhetki, prawn, and squid in a gravy with hot garlic sauce, served with egg fried rice.
The cafe is also proud of its beverages. They have tied up with the loose tea company STG (Small Tea Growers) Associates and, besides first and second flush Darjeeling and Assam tea, offer Kashmiri Kahwa, the premium Silver Needle white tea, Smoky tea (where tea leaves are fermented underground), and Malt tea.
“This is the only single malt drink you can safely drink and drive,” quips Atreyi’s husband, Sarbapi. This malt tea absorbs aromas so while it’s pure tea it smells like single malt. “As for our coffees, we have a hand grinder to make pour-over coffee and the taste is a mix of salty-sour-fruity. Our hot chocolate has a bitter-sweet taste too, as we use 70-75 per cent dark chocolate,” he says. To balance the palate, they serve it with marshmallows.
