"It’s been just five months since we started. We want to serve good food which is pocket friendly. No fancy prices. We have changed the entire concept of Coffee House. We serve Parsi, Chinese, Moglai dishes and have a live tandoor as well," explains Dr Kuresh Zorabi who runs the restaurant with his wife Geeti and Farhang Jehani of Leopold Café. A wide range of sandwiches, rolls, cutlets, falooda, caramel custard, etc and tea/filter coffee are readily available to hurrying office goers, scurrying to survive and succeed amidst the chaos of crowded, cosmopolitan Bombay.
Situated a hop, step and jump from Tata bastion Bombay House on Homi Mody Street, Fort, Coffee House was for decades "a very well-known outlet for coffee and Udipi dishes and egg preparations. It was a place visited by personalities like Amol Palekar, Swaroop Sampat and also Paresh Rawal in the early ’80s and ’90s. It was recognized by the Coffee Board of India for its filter coffee," elaborates Zorabi, bubbling with enthusiasm. Most Irani restaurants have been taken over by others including Shettys but here, he quips, it is a reversal of roles! "Geeti always wanted to revive her late father’s legacy of Mocambo Café and wanted the older avatar of that eatery to be started here. Jehani and I open Coffee House and do loban and agarbatti every morning together. We are trying to revive the old traditions of Iranis. It provides good bonding too. Jehani is very experienced in the restaurant business," says Zorabi who is an ophthalmologist with an eye clinic at Colaba. Awon Muivah is the manager.
Coffee House is open all days from nine in the morning to midnight. "There is a small air-conditioned section upstairs. Our customers are from all communities and come from different parts of Bombay and suburbs and even from Poona. The most popular dishes are chicken dhansak and chicken cutlets. Even foodie Kunal Vijaykar thinks so. During the recent Kala Ghoda Festival, Salim and Sulaiman Merchant, Bollywood singers etc dropped in for a meal at Coffee House," Zorabi observes. "Our delivery service is mainly to offices nearby, but we do deliver anywhere in south Bombay provided the order is over Rs 1,000." Coffee House can be contacted on 022- 65252562.