To enter an Irani cafe in Mumbai is to enter a bygone era. They may not be as popular as they were in their heyday in mid-20th century. The...
To enter an Irani cafe in Mumbai is to enter a bygone era. They may not be as popular as they were in their heyday in mid-20th century. Their numbers may have declined dramatically from around 350 in the 1960s to scarcely 30. But they still remain spaces of geniality. You can still visit them for a cutting chai with snacks like khari biscuits and buttered buns without ripping a big hole in the wallet.
Interest in Irani cafes has grown in the British South Asian diaspora because of the outrageously popular restaurant Dishoom. The first Dishoom was opened in London’s Covent Garden in 2010, and is currently being refurbished for its tenth birthday. Its popularity in the past decade led to the setting up of four more establishments in various districts of London, each with its own style and imagined backstory, but all paying homage to the Irani cafe. It also prompted a migration to other British cities, such as Edinburgh, Manchester, and now Birmingham.
Dishoom opened its “godown” in a cavernous former railway building at King’s Cross in 2014. I discovered it as a place to while away a few hours as I waited for the train back to my home in...
