Araku Coffee... the Game Changer

Today sees the launch of Araku Coffee in Bangalore, a space that I really believe will be transformative for both Bangalore’s food scene and for how we as a country imagine the idea of a cafe. 

I was lucky to go and do a private tasting last month and I came away astonished at what they have accomplished and it has been very very hard for me to restrain myself from sharing details the last three weeks. 

There are three different coffee bars, a classic Italian style espresso bar, a hand pour bar and what they call a mod bar, where you get coffee on tap like a beer. You sit at a table or at a bar counter. There are no laptops allowed. It is a space for coffee, food and conversation, and not a surrogate co-working space. Every design element is thought through and perfect, bringing home the essence of Araku valley where the coffee is grown. The plants, the eclectic collection of books in the bookshop, the light fixtures, the sense of air and light and space, the open kitchen.. it is an aesthete’s dream. 

The food by Rahul Sharma is fearless, defying labels and categorisation. The menu is largely (but not only) vegetarian but even a meat lover like me didn’t feel the need for meat. My plan is to literally keep going back and try every single thing on the menu. Bangalore has never seen food like this. There is zero “this is what the audience expects”. Nope. It is use your imagination and fly, there is no safety net and as a result this is food that blends imagination and execution to perfection. I will do a longer post on the food after I’ve eaten there a few times more but Rahul is a star and this restaurant is a game changer that lays down a marker to chefs and restaurants in Bangalore and pushes them to examine their own boundaries and limits. 

And finally, Aditi Dugar. I have gone from being a customer at Masque to being a friend who is constantly inspired by her courage and vision. There are very few people in India’s food scene (or anywhere for that matter) like her. The ability to empower a chef, to go all in, to embrace the impossible and the unimaginable and to pull it off, requires some strange combination of madness and genius and Aditi has it in spades. I know I’ve written about Masque and will write about Araku’s food soon but Aditi deserves to have her story told in detail. She is a transformative, inspiring figure for India’s food scene. 

So stop reading and go to Araku now. Your mind will be blown!