CHENNAI: A cafe with comfort food and traditional board games go hand-in-hand. This month-old eatery in Anna Nagar, Bread & Beyond, offers both. The tiny 300 sq ft space is filled with potted green plants and compactly packed with 20 seats. Vetiver root mats are hung up on the windows to give a cooling effect.
A vintage motorcycle from 1973, Suvega, parked at the entrance, calls for quick selfies. With just three staff members, the eatery is run by K Srikanth, who had been in the marketing and corporate sector for 22 years. “Bread & Beyond was a kiosk in Perungudi. It was shut down a couple of years ago in 2016. What you see now is the same place with a tweaked menu. Our sandwiches and green chutney used to be the hot-selling item earlier. Now we have a wide range of options added to our menu and have worked on our ambiance,” shares Srikanth.
The eatery offers 25 varieties of Maggi, five flavours of unlimited pani puri, sandwiches, pastas, fries and burgers. With the mushrooming of cafes in town, Srikanth feels that experimenting with ingredients and innovation with food are the only ways to sustain in the industry. “We recently tried out idli white pasta. Unusually, it turned out to be nothing like idli. The pieces were firm, they absorbed the sauce and tasted more like bread. Very soon we will be introducing an idli platter with five varieties of the dish such as schezwan, salsa, desi and more. We will be trying the same with string hoppers. Since it resembles noodles and has a thin texture, we will use it in Thai green and red curries to give it a spin,” says Srikanth.
Considering the schools and colleges in the locality, they have kept the menu pocket-friendly. Different combinations like avakkai (mango pickle) Maggie, tiger (puliogare) Maggie and gun powder (dal powder) Maggie, stand out from the rest. Among the highlights is the pani puri live counter. Flavours like mint, chilli green, lemon coriander, chilli garlic and chocolate will be filled in five counters. Customers can take their puri and get the filling on their own. The food will be served in biodegradable sugarcane plates.
Adding on to the fun, the cafe offers traditional games to play while you eat. In an effort to tap into the customer’s nostalgia, they have games like goli, paramapadham (snake and ladder), adu puli attam (lamb and tigers), pallanguzhi, search for sita, the battle of Lanka and bambaram. “We want to give our customers the space and time to leisurely have a meal. As much as we want to cater to our younger generation we also need to stay relevant to our elder customers. Bonding over food and games has been present for a long time. We are doing our part to continue the tradition,” says Srikanth.
Bygone era
This cafe is a time capsule. In an effort to tap into the customers’ nostalgia, they have games like goli, paramapadham (snake and ladder), adu puli attam (lamb and tigers), pallanguzhi, the search for Sita and the battle of Lanka and bambaram
Details: Fifth Main road, opposite to Jessie Moses school, Anna Nagar. Contact: 9677022272