City’s first taste of Bombay Irani Café

The invitation came in the lunch dubba that’s so synonymous with Mumbai. ‘SodaBottleOpenerwala’, the Bombay Irani Café & Bar that opened in Jubilee Hills, stays true to the old Bombaiah Parsi bawa run Irani cafés in many aspects. The concept comes from the high profiled restaurateur AD Singh’s stable and he has teamed up yet again with Shaaz and Shiraz, his partners who successfully launched Olive Bistro at Durgam Cheruvu.

With the quirky ambience, the madness and fun that lurks at every corner, that starts from the name of the café to the open courtyard with the old-world bakery selling candies and bakery items, the aluminum tea kettles, the chaddi and baniyan hanging on the mock balcony created on one side, the humorous lines on the menu, the sorry list that includes ‘No Flirting’ among other ‘Nos’ reflecting the eccentricities of Parsis, the toy train that goes around the restaurant, just below the roof, the alluring clutter and noise; SodaBottleOpenerwala gets as close to the famous old world Irani Cafes of Mumbai as possible, and more.

In addition to the Bombay Irani Café favourites like the Irani Chai, the Masala Chai, Masala Pepsi (a variation to Masala Thumbs Up), Raspberry Soda, Icecream Soda, Berry Pulao, Ginger Biscuits, Berry and Badam Nan Khatai, the menu also has popular Mumbai street food like the Vada Pav, Tardeo A/c Market Mamaji’s Grilled Sandwich and Parsi classics like the Chicken Farcha, Dhansak, a few Goan specialties like fish curry and a few inclusions from the clubs of Bombay like the Egg Kejriwal.

“I have a good team. My wife Sabina works on the design along with the architects, we have a good chef and kitchen director who has designed the food, I have good partners who are like family and all I do is work hard on creating a product and leave it to them,” says AD Singh who is famous for launching concept restaurants and making them successful. The secret behind his success is hard work coupled with creativity and an understanding of the industry.

“The harder I work the luckier I get,” he quotes. “I love what I do and another advantage is that I started early and learnt it the hard way.” AD Singh started his stint with restaurants in 1990 with ‘Just Desserts’ that can probably be termed as the first concept standalone restaurant of Bombay. “There was no competition back then, and what we did was different and people appreciated it. Today it is a different story,” he says.

Now that two of his brands have made an entry into Hyderabad, what next? “We have 6-7 brands, but it is still too early for all of them to come to Hyderabad. For example we have a brand called ‘Guppi’ – Japanese restaurant that’s quite popular in Delhi and Mumbai, but Hyderabadis are not so much into Japanese food.”

That surely does not discount the fact that the tastes and palettes of Hyderabadis are emerging. “We are confident that the menu will be popular because Parsi food is very Indian in terms of its spices and flavours and familiar in many ways,” says AD Singh. By the way, ‘SodaBottleOpenerwala’ is officially the first restaurant to be serving Parsi food in Hyderabad in addition to being the first of its kind Bombay Irani Café of the city.

By:Rajeshwari Kalyanam