A tale of two Bangalores
What competing cafe life says about an Indian hub of commerce
BANGALORE — Inside Koshy’s cafe in downtown Bangalore, the decor borders on grungy, the service is leisurely and the tables are chock-full of customers at all times of the day and night.
The menu highlight is appam — light rice crepes served with a creamy vegetable stew, made from a recipe perfected by the current owner’s grandmother.
The cafe, on St. Mark’s Road, is something of a Bangalore institution. Regulars include writers and lawyers, retired government officials and old-time politicians. On occasion, familiar faces — like those of British filmmaker Peter Brook and Rahul Gandhi, the scion of India’s enduring political dynasty — can be spotted.
Right across the road is Bangalore’s Hard Rock Cafe. Here the food, drink and music are tailored to global tastes. The clientele is made up of hip, young professionals and international travelers.
In Bangalore, known the world over as a hub of globalization, the two cafes epitomize the two faces of the city.
To its eclectic patrons, Koshy’s provides an anchor in a rapidly changing milieu, a rare constant in the shifting world around them.
Hard Rock Cafe, on the other hand, embodies the city’s morphing face and the aspirations of its westernizing population.
The average Koshy’s patron is a graying, elegant man, dressed in a comfortable cotton kurta (tunic), even smoking a bidi (hand-rolled local cigarette) and sipping freshly brewed coffee. In this no-frills cafe, coffee costs 15 rupees, less than 30 cents, including taxes.
Some customers amble in every day, rain or shine, and do not leave until they have drunk eight or ten cups of coffee. “Nothing seems to change in the cafe — not its waiters, its decor or its coffee,” say regulars like Sunita Krishnan, who considers a visit a trip down nostalgia lane.
Like Bangalore’s cafes of old, Koshy’s has a personal touch. It has passed down through three generations of the Koshy clan. Some of its waiters, such as the pleasant but impossible-to-hurry Joy, have been around for three-and-a-half decades.
Its current owner, the affable, gregarious Prem Koshy is a character unto himself. He doubles as a waiter and kitchen hand on busy days, and works part-time as a yoga teacher, theater actor and snake catcher. He says that his personal motto — “Never mess with a Koshy’s coffee drinker” — explains the zeal of some of the cafe’s patrons.
Across the street, it’s an entirely different story. In the neighboring cafe, customers are quintessential mod-ish, Blackberry or iPhone-wielding urban dwellers imbibing from shot glasses.
Customers perched on stools are on back-slapping terms after a couple rounds of shots or beer. Beer is the cheapest drink on the menu, but at $3 for a glass of local beer, it’s far pricier than a cup of Koshy’s coffee.
The Hard Rock Cafe T-shirts proclaiming "Bengaluru," Bangalore’s localized new name, are hot sellers, along with menu items like fajitas and the apple cobbler.
Both cafes have their own die-hard fans in Bangalore, who swear never to be seen in the other cafe.
But there are some customers, such as Senthil Kumar, who easily straddle both worlds. “Both places define the city’s open culture,” Kumar says, as he sips a beer while sitting in the open courtyard at the Hard Rock Cafe. "They are a must for the definitive Bangalore experience."
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