Go back in time, tour the Irani cafes

Round wooden tables covered with checkered tablecloth, quaint black wooden chairs and mirrored walls, glass shelves holding fresh stock of bread and cream cakes — the city’s century-old Irani cafes are not only about bun maska and kheema pav.

Round wooden tables covered with checkered tablecloth, quaint black wooden chairs and mirrored walls, glass shelves holding fresh stock of bread and cream cakes — the city’s century-old Irani cafes are not only about bun maska and kheema pav.

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“The Irani cafes in the city have retained the city’s old world charm with their characteristic architectural setup. At the end of a century, the area surrounding the cafes have changed, but not the cafes’ interiors,” said Kruti Garg, head of the heritage walk section at the 14th Kala Ghoda Arts Festival.

On Friday, you can explore these cafes and the history of public dining in a heritage walk tour in south Mumbai. The participants will stop by Kala Ghoda’s Army Cafe, Military Cafe, Yazdani bakery and Jimmy Boy in Fort, and discuss the origins of Brittania and Kyani.

“The Irani cafes were responsible for transforming the eating habits of city residents. Local residents moved out of their dining rooms to Irani cafes, savouring the taste of kheema pav and bun maska served at a nominal price,” said Garg.

“Neither does the menu have exotic dishes to offer nor is the food served with imported cutlery,” said Neha Doshi, 24, a media professional, who will participate in the heritage walk.

Meanwhile, festival visitors at Rampart Row stood in a long queue to get a glimpse of the three-dimensional visual street art created by American street artist, Tracy Lee Stum, through a camera lens on Thursday. The American Consulate brought the Guinness World Record holder to the city as part of the festival.

“I’ve never seen a street art of this dimension. Through the camera lens, I could actually see Madhuri Dixit come to life,” said Mohit Mukherji, 28, who stood in the queue for almost an hour.