A glass of aam panna sits a few inches away from a tahini latte. Behind them, an Indian cricket jersey hangs against cobalt-blue walls. At In Good Co, the newest café in the M block market of Greater Kailash 2, the message is simple: being global no longer means pretending not to be Indian.
The crowd is an interesting mix of young people in their 20s eager to try the latest café on the block and a sizeable number of men in their late 40s and 50s who sit with the easy familiarity of long-time regulars.
The man behind it is Uday Pinali, COO of the Aditya Birla Group, venturing into hospitality with a café concept built not on intuition but on a year's worth of consumer research. Before the café came into existence, his team spoke to over a thousand people across cities, asking them what they actually wanted from a café and what they felt was missing.
‘India is global today’
"What we realised is that the consumer is far more rooted and they like being Indian than one would have imagined," Pinali says. "They are very self-assured, very confident. They are not really gazing towards the West as much as we think they do."
The insight sounds simple but has real implications for how In Good Co is built. The café refuses to force a choice between a cortado and a cutting chai, between a brioche sandwich and a patisserie. Both sit on the menu, freshly assembled on the premises, with equal confidence.
The question of whether a place is Indian or international, Pinali argues, is fast becoming irrelevant. "India is global today," he says. "They feel they are part of a global culture — just because of their exposure to Instagram, their travel, and so on." We are not afraid to be who we are. That's what I mean by unapologetic."
Real tea
The menu bears this out. Coffee is sourced 100% Arabica, available in a medium or dark roast. A Tahini Latte — sesame paste folded into espresso — sits alongside a Sunset, which is orange juice and coffee, and a Shikanji that shares the fridge with cold brew. "How can sesame and tahini go into a latte? I also thought, what is this thing," Pinali admits, laughing. "But when I tasted it, I couldn't stop." There are no pre-mixes, no tea bags. The chai is real chai.
Quality control is handled by Rashi Dubey, who has been in the industry for over two decades. Every ingredient is vetted: some materials are imported, others sourced from dedicated local vendors, all put through internal quality analysis before they make it to the kitchen. A Badam Halwa croissant is already one of the early talking points.
Pinali is also reading the post-Covid-19 shift carefully. People are spending longer hours working out of cafés, eating more meals outside the home, and increasingly asking for food that is not just good but purposeful. "A number of people are asking for something more protein-oriented, something more salad," he says. " The demand for healthy food has increased." The menu has been calibrated accordingly, with lighter options running alongside the indulgent ones.
A good opening
The early response has been encouraging enough to make a soft opening feel like a full one. Tanya Khanna, 23, who came in and ordered the matcha along with a panini sandwich, was struck immediately. "The matcha tasted authentic — not sweet, not powdery. And the panini didn't feel like it came out of a freezer. I would be coming here again," she said.
Rajiv Mehra, 54, a corporate employee, had a different kind of appreciation. "I've seen so many cafés open on this street and close in a year. This one feels like it has thought about what it wants to be. The chai was proper, not a bag dunked in hot water. Which was quite refreshing," he said.
As for scale, Pinali is deliberate. The plan is five to seven cafés over the next couple of years - a few more in Delhi and then branch out to other cities. "Will we do it in a hurry? Not necessarily," he says. "It's important that we preserve what we set out to do. We have to spend time understanding what our customers are saying. What do they like? What do we need to change? What do we do more of?"
Pricing, he emphasises, is inclusive. Americanos and cappuccinos sit in the ₹220–230 range, and food starts below ₹200 with nothing crossing the ₹400 mark. The blue walls, the real chai, the sesame latte, none of it is meant to feel like a privilege. In Good Co wants to be a neighbourhood spot. In GK2, at least, it seems well on its way.