BRISK BUSINESS: The 104-year-old Kyani Cafe is a hot-spot for Mumbaikars

“Good Parsi bhonu (food),” confirms Zen Cassinath, a regular at Britannia, the legendary Irani establishment in south Mumbai’s business district, which swears by the dictum, ‘there is no love greater than the love of eating’. “In the 1950s, there were 350 Irani restaurants,” says Romin Kohinoor, partner at Britannia. “Today, only 25 of them exist.”

Most Iranian restaurants started out as tea joints. “When Iranians came to India in the 19th century, they were in search of a better livelihood,” says Aflatoon Shokri, second-generation owner of the 104-year-old Kyani Café at Marine Lines. “At that time, Mumbai was already home to the Parsis. A couple of Iranians worked in Parsi homes as caretakers, and met in the evenings to discuss the life they had left behind, and their future prospects. One such evening, a man served tea to everyone and charged them a token amount. The result — a new business was born. This was the beginning of probably the first Iranian café.”

The cafes grew in size, giving rise to many ‘ancillary services’ such as bakeries and ice factories. While eedu (egg) and custard specialties evolved, it was Irani chai and brun maska (hard-crust bun with butter) that ruled the hearts. The race for attracting crowds and increasing profit margins, however, led to more diversified menus. Some, such as Café Mondegar (its star attraction over the generations being its jukebox) managed this quite successfully, others like Café Ideal are now perceived as beer bars, and still more like the Brabourne Café have shut down altogether.

SOUGHT AFTER: Despite mushrooming upscale coffee shops,people continue to throng the Yazdani Bakery for its low-priced special chai

Families and fraternal partnerships, once the strength of these timeless islands of hospitality, have also been the cause of rift. Typically, each Irani restaurant was started by a partnership between four friends. Sometimes, second or third generation heirs shut shops over disagreements, as happened with Bastani & Co. But blood continues to run thicker than water at Sassanian Boulangerie, Yazdani Bakery, Kyani & Co and Britannia, to name some. “My father was a wise man,” says Jahanbax Kola of Sassanian. “He married his partner’s daughter, reducing chances of partnership problems.”

Kola spent five years abroad, studying hotel management and working. He came back to India when he realised there was no one else to take care of the family business. But his is a rare case. With higher levels of education and increasing number of opportunities to settle abroad, many opt out of sitting behind a counter and running a bakery. Even if they return, there are cultural clashes. “They don’t want to change with the times, inspite of not making enough money,” says the third generation Kola. “I don’t want to turn this into a fancy place, but an upgrade in style is definitely required.”

But tradition has also been a valuable inheritance for some. Zend of Yazdani shows off the Urban Heritage Award (2007) plaque when he recounts stories of his corporate friends who envy his job. He is confident that his PDA — carrying, college-going sons will keep up the family tradition. “Many joints with weak roots have died out,” says Zend. “But the few that have survived are rock solid and will be there till the next century.” Let’s raise a chai to that.

(Businessworld Issue 8-14 July 2008)