Steps from Bombaim, on an enviable corner on verdant Southern Avenue, is Bunaphile Roasters, a colorful café amid a hodgepodge of yoga studios, meditation halls, and private residences. The space, which opened in July 2023, retains the home’s original layout, as well as its louvered windows, doors, and pillars. “I noticed that many of the cafés that existed in this area drew on Italy, Spain, and Russia for their cues. There was very little that Kolkata itself inspired. That baffled me because this is such a beautiful city,” says Sonika Dey, a self-made Bengali entrepreneur whose growing café portfolio showcases the aesthetics of old-world Kolkata. Her love of Bengali art and crafts created the backbone of Bunaphile’s design. “I wanted a modern version of a colonial coffeehouse set in a heritage home where the decor was Bengali and the food and coffee would appeal to millennials,” says Dey.
A similar desire to showcase Bengal’s craft and produce drives the enterprise at Sienna Store & Cafe. Started in 2015 by mother-daughter duo Shanta and Shuli Ghosh on the ground floor of an old Bengali home, it began as an indie boutique and café that sold homemade baked goods. In the eight years since, Shuli has been joined by her husband, Rewant Lokesh, and the chef Auroni Mookerjee. Together they have honed the made-in-Bengal focus of their products and menu. From Ghosh’s jamdani dresses and miniature khorkhori earrings to Mookerjee’s modern dishes that draw inspiration from Bengal’s markets, Sienna Store & Cafe is a laboratory for adaptive reuse of the city’s traditions and nostalgia. The success of Sienna Store & Cafe, which frequently appears on India’s Best Restaurant lists, has breathed energy into its surroundings. On any given evening, you will see people chatting over iced coffees on the mudas outside its doors. Neighbors walk in with their pets. Hipsters shop for sustainable jholas. The chefs pop out to say hello. This vibe carries across to the neighboring lanes, where an ever-growing list of cafés includes Flurys, which sits inside a turn-of-the-century home with curved balconies, bright pink khorkhoris, and a Parisian-style terrace to become one of the most photographed corners in the neighborhood.
While the heritage houses of South Kolkata are part of a café revolution, the nearby Ballygunge Place neighborhood is prepping for a renaissance. The 75-year-old home of one of Bengal’s most famous artists, Jamini Roy, has been acquired by DAG (Delhi Art Gallery) and is being repurposed into the Jamini Roy Residence, a museum, café, and cultural resource center celebrating Roy’s oeuvre. A lane away, the pioneering Priyanka and Prateek Raja turned two floors of the 100-year-old home of the late art critic Aveek Sen, a family friend, into their second gallery, retaining its vintage tiles, khorkhoris, and Art Deco grills. After this second outpost of Experimenter opened in 2018, Sen kept living on the floor below, strolling in to chat about art and life until his passing in 2021. The space houses sound-centric exhibitions intermixing oral narratives and classical Indian ragas with installations and videos, all in an old Bengali home with beautiful light-filled corridors and rooms with tiles and balconies. “For us, the architecture plays a very strong role in the exhibition,” says Priyanka.
Standing proud in a back lane of Kalighat, home to the city’s most venerated temple dedicated to the goddess Kali, is a beautiful house with distinct semicircular windows, recently christened the Red Bari. When I first saw the 90-year-old four-story home, it was getting ready for its final coat of brick red paint—the exact shade it received nearly a century ago. The road to transforming the Red Bari into a café, coworking space, and B&B wasn’t always easy for owner Avantika Jalan. “It’s easier to break something down and build anew than to change an existing design to make it more practical,” she says. She hopes to document it all as an interactive experience for visitors throughout the house. “I want to highlight what it takes to buy an old home and to turn it into a commercial space, because I believe there are learnings that may help others.”
Where to eat
Sprawling across 7,000 square feet of the grounds of a 160-year-old building, Bunaphile Roasters is a year-old café, said to be Kolkata’s largest. Flamboyant fare like marigold daiquiris and mango panna cotta brighten the tables of this Jalsa‘s glamorous dining room, styled as if the assignment were “Gatsby in West Bengal.” Locals love café-and-shop combo Sienna Store & Cafe, owned by mother-and-daughter duo Shanta and Shuli Ghosh, for the ways it spotlights the produce, craftsmanship, and traditions of Bengal.
Old colonial Kolkata sings in the design of three-level establishment The Bhawanipur House. The dining rooms, bakery, tea lounge, and terrace are all decorated with woodwork, period furniture, and photographs from another era. Unmissable due to its visually arresting red façade, The Red Bari serves excellent coffee from Mumbai’s Subko Specialty Coffee Roasters and pastries from local bakeries.
