My Coffee Shop Dreams

Incidentally the 2 restaurants I visited last weekend were all very new in the business both in terms of concept and experience. And both were conceived as passionate quests, to do something different.

Brewhaha

Such is the story of Brewhaha, a cozy little place (I’ll explain in length later for calling it the place) where you could drink gallons of coffee, play one of their 65 board games and not worry about a fat bill, a case with most restaurants in Bangalore (sigh!)

Two IIM dudes, Sreeram and Mansur, felt their fat jobs at MNCs were not good enough and decided to chase their coffee shop dreams, and Brewhaha was conceived. Now Brewhaha can look deceivingly similar to a coffee shop but it’s not, and Sreeram (who otherwise looks seemingly pleasant) nearly jumped at my throat for calling it a coffee shop. It’s a community driven entertainment lounge where one is likely to meet his own kind and have a lot of fun.

Making a business out of playing board games and sipping Calvin shake all day long sounds like fun to anyone, even to Sreeram and Mansur, and that’s why they are in it, but they know it’s hard work to keep the money flowing.

These guys say they take your fun seriously and they really live up to it. Hopping from table to table teaching board games, pretending to lose just to flatter your ego and ensuring you had a ball must be a really tough job.

Sreeram looks into the food menu and has given it a lot of thought (you’ll realise it when you read the menu a little carefully) to dish out some interesting food and coffee to go along. Mansur loves gaming and has done justice to his passion by bringing together an interesting assortment of games at Brewhaha.

Whether you’re with friends, colleagues or just by yourself, head to Brewhaha. I’ll guarantee you’ll have one hell of a time.

You could catch their hip hop workshop or online quiz, to find out about all that’s brewing at Brewhaha log on to: http://www.brewhaha.in/

PS: Sreeram you’re paying me for this :)

Ta'am Falafel

Now who would have ever thought you would get to taste Middle Eastern street food in Bangalore. Anil Elassery and his Ta’am Falafel have changed all that. After having lived in Israel for a long time, Anil thought it was about time people back home got to taste something new, something that shouts non-continental. So he brought with him the falafel in a pita. Egyptian by origin, but became the national food of Israel, and is now better known as Arabic fast food.

Falafel looks like a vada but is made of chickpea and herbs. It’s stuffed in pita bread along with pickled vegetables, hummus and tahini sauce and is served as sandwich or wrap.

The Indian street food is going to face some serious competition. Anil plans to take this falafel concept to the streets of India.

Check out http://www.taamrestaurants.com/ for more details on Arabic fast food.

The reviews of both Brewhaha and Ta’am falafel will be up on Discover Bangalore shortly and will give you more details on the food, menu and pricing of the place.

Having a coffee shop dream is one thing and starting one of your own and surviving is a completely different thing, and both are usually mutually exclusive. We all have our own coffee shop dreams, to start a cheerful little neighborhood place, we also know it’s all far too whimsical.

I personally felt both were very niche, new ideas that were striving to be different. They admit life’s not always been rosy for them; after all surviving in a jungle of wolves can get really nasty and you are alone.