India’s restaurant scene is booming. There are new eateries opening all the time—prix-fixe menus, molecular gastronomy, BBQ grills, food trucks and more. And considering the foodies we are, we’ve obviously told you all about them, not to mention those defined by their unique concepts. Today, however, we’re going a step beyond our stomachs and eyes, and right into our hearts as we shed some light on eateries that have conscientiously decided to make the world a better place, while serving food and drinks. These have a unifying goal, mission or cause that they fulfill alongside their more obvious purpose, right from promoting a healthier lifestyle, following the concept of paying it forward, feeding the needy, or spreading awareness about the differently-abled. While these cafes have been rising in popularity in the West for a long time, in India, it’s a relatively more recent affair. But things are changing fast for the better.
Below is a curated list of ‘cafes with a conscience’ as we like to call them. An ode to spaces that are breaking the mould and redefining the concept of eating out. Scroll on and stop by one close to you to see what it’s like.
I. Ciclo Café, Chennai
India’s first cycling café that promotes healthier living
Kotturpuram in Chennai plays host to India’s first cycling café—and what a café it is. Every part of it is decorated using cycle parts: table legs are made of cycle forks, lights incorporate wheels and there’s even a gorgeous chandelier made of cycle chains. Cyclists can bring their bicycles over for a wash or tune-up and relax with a cup of coffee as they are tended to. Ciclo also organises group rides that set out from the café itself, promoting cycling as an alternative way of transportation and a healthier lifestyle.
II. Chavadi Cafe, Bengaluru
Where you can gift a plant for a greener tomorrow
This community café based in Bengaluru is a little bit of everything mixed together. It’s got a collection of books that you can add to and borrow, a co-working space with free Wi-Fi, and our favourite feature—The Wall of Gifting Joy, where you can anonymously gift the next visitor a potted plant in the hopes of inspiring a greener tomorrow.
III. Dialogue in the Dark, Hyderabad
Where you get to see what it’s like to be visually impaired
The concept of dining in the dark was a huge hit globally a few years ago. It’s where you are blindfolded or seated in the dark, rendering your eyes completely useless. The logic behind it being that since you cannot see what you are eating, your other senses over compensate, which increases your perceptions of smell and taste, leading to a more intense gastronomic experience. Hyderabad’s Dialogue in the Dark has adopted this concept but taken it one step further—all its waitstaff are visually impaired. So while you’re sitting there eating your meal, it’s not just about how good it tastes, but you leave having experienced for an hour what visually impaired people experience on a daily basis, leaving you humbled at the end of your meal.
IV. Food-on-the-wall in Malappuram, Kerala
Pay-it-forward by leaving a token on the wall for the hungry
All over the Keralan district of Malappuram are little eateries that have been set up with help from the government where one can pay for a meal for the needy. After your meal, you purchase a token for another meal, which you stick on the wall. Any hungry person who cannot afford to pay for their meal simply has to take a token off the wall, produce it at the counter and accept a meal in exchange.
[caption id=”attachment_44376” align=”aligncenter” width=”800”] Food on the Wall, Kerala[/caption]
V. Hunger Cafes in Mahim, Mumbai
Where food is doled out to the poor on a daily basis
In the Mumbai suburb of Mahim, there are a string of eateries known as hunger cafes. For decades, the city’s poor have waited in neat lines on the streets outside in the hopes of a meal. Behind the doors of these eateries, huge pots of food are cooked. Every so often, people stop and donate money to these hunger cafes and as a result, some of the hungry waiting in the never-ending queue are fed—sort of like a cyclical routine. If you’ve never seen this, stop by and part with some of your cash to help make the days of the less fortunate a lot more bearable. It won’t cost you much, we promise.
VI. Kalakkal Cafe, Chennai
India’s first ‘inclusive’ café
Kalakkal Café in Chennai is run by the NGO Vidya Sagar, and positions itself as India’s first ‘inclusive’ café. From braille menus cards, tactile walls, ramps for wheelchairs, accessible bathrooms, and even eating aids, Kalakkal makes sure that all customers feel equally welcome on its premises, a surprisingly rare treat for those who are differently-abled.
VII. Om Restaurant, Bengaluru
Where Braille menus sit alongside regular ones
An establishment that hopes to bring India’s visually challenged out into the public sphere, Bengaluru’s famous Om Restaurant recently introduced a braille menu in partnership with Enable India. The menu was launched on the auspicious day of Ugadi and has only furthered Om Restaurant’s popularity.
VIII. Mirchi & Mime, Mumbai
Where the waitstaff is hearing and speech impaired
This Powai café’s waitstaff is entirely hearing and speech impaired. The experience begins before you even enter the restaurant. At the door, the hostess greets you and points to the reservation book. If you have a booking, you nod and point out your name. If you don’t, you wait to be seated. Once you are seated, your table has illustrated menus with sign language on them so you can either gesticulate as to what you want or simply point it out. With a seating capacity of 80, Mirchi & Mime goes full pretty much all the time so do make that reservation.
IX. Seva Café, Ahmedabad
Where you pay it forward
This restaurant in Ahmedabad is the ultimate in selflessness. There are no prices and diners aren’t viewed as customers, but instead, as guests. Seva Café follows the concept of pay-it-forward. A person who dines before you pays for your meal, and you in turn are encouraged to pay for someone who dines after you. You can also pay your way by helping with the cooking, cleaning, serving and organising.
X. Sheroes Hangout, Agra
A café run by acid attack victims
Sheroes Hangout, located opposite the Taj Gateway Hotel in Agra, is a very special sort of space—it’s run by five women who have all survived acid attacks. Terming it a ‘café’, however, doesn’t do it justice, as it’s so much more than that. It has an ever-growing library, an activists’ workshop that holds classes to educate girls on how to use computers and utilise social media, and a handicraft and exhibition space that contains items designed by some of the survivors themselves. And as far as the café goes, you pay what you want. The emotional scars of survivors often take far longer to heal than the physical ones, and its endeavours like this that aim to bring dignity and hope back into the lives of acid attack survivors that truly warm our hearts.
XI. Shri AVM Homely food, Erdo, Tamil Nadu
Home of the one-rupee thaali
400 km from Chennai is the tiny town of Erode, where 49-year-old Venkatraman runs a little eatery that offers food for a pittance—the one-rupee thali. Most of his customers are patients or visitors at the nearby Erode Government Hospital and this Good Samaritan is doing his bit to help.
XII. The Humming Tree, Bengaluru
Fighting for LGBTQ equality in Indian nightlife
This past New Years’ Eve, Bengaluru’s The Humming Tree expanded the myopic and stereotypically Indian definition of a ‘couple’ and threw its doors open to all couples, regardless of sexual orientation. Many LGBTQ people are routinely turned away at the door if they’re with a same-sex date because they don’t fit into the narrow definition of a ‘couple’. And this is exactly what The Humming Tree hoped to change, at least for a night. While we haven’t heard of any other establishments ever stepping forward to embrace the LGBTQ community and offer them a sense of belonging alongside their straight counterparts, perhaps The Humming Tree’s endeavour will inspire others to follow. Hopefully, they will find themselves becoming the unwitting torchbearer in the Indian LGBTQ community’s struggle to achieve equal recognition in public spaces.
XIII. Tihar Jail Food Court, Delhi
Where criminals serve you food
Tihar Jail is India’s most notorious prison and houses some of its most dangerous criminals. Yet, in 2014, it did something no one expected: it opened a food court. Here’s the really astonishing part though—the inmates run the food court. The 45-seat restaurant seems very out of place within South Asia’s largest prison complex, but it has been a hit, and people travel for hours to sample the food here. The staff is made up of convicts who have proven themselves by good behaviour during their sentence and the café serves everything from chai-time bites like samosas to tandoori, thaali and even good ol’ rajma chawal.
XIV. Track & Trails - Coffee & Cycles, Bengaluru
A café that promotes healthier living through cycling
Bengaluru’s Koramangala neighbourhood is home to this hipster café that was started in a bid to merge lifestyle and cycling. It’s a shop as well as a café, where cycling enthusiasts gather to buy gear and exchange tips and advice over hot cups of coffee. There’s also an in-house service centre in case your bike needs some work.
— Special Mention —
Café Coffee Day and Costa Coffee
We’ve left this for the end because these are chain establishments. Café Coffee Day and Costa Coffee both employ speech and hearing-impaired individuals as baristas and deserves acknowledgment for its note-worthy attempt to make the world a little bit better.
Researched by Diva Garg