What do some of the new eateries in town have in common? No, it’s not the cuisine. It is their decision to showcase snapshots of the city in murals that are framed and mounted on their walls or make up most of one wall. In a new trend, several new eateries in town are opting to highlight popular city landmarks. From the Golconda Fort, Charminar, Falaknuma Palace, Hussain Sagar to the bustling food culture in these parts of town, it is all translated onto the canvas, or in this case on the wall.
Take for instance the Plaza Fiesta restaurant at Paryatak Bhavan. The restaurant boasts of quite a few works synonymous with the Deccan region. In fact, some of the 3D relief works have been created by popular Hyderabadi artist Aziz. “We wanted to create a unique ambience that would be distinctly different from what other restaurants offer. Also, we wanted to showcase some of our popular landmarks to visitors; so what better way to do so than art,” says Surya Prakash, officer on duty at Plaza Fiesta.
The works in this restaurant include images of the Golconda, the city’s unique rockscape and a banyan tree. “We have works by six artists on display — Aziz, Chinna Shripathi, Supretha Ghosh, Palash Paul, Agacharya and Madhu Kuruva,” adds Surya Prakash. While some of the works are displayed within the restaurant, others are mounted near the entrance to welcome guests.
Hyderabadi fine dining restaurant TenHill also proudly displays city landmarks as part of its décor. It has gone beyond mounting paintings in the restaurant, to have an entire wall that displays the mural. “We had city-based artist Rekha create the mural for us; it is quite impressive. My aim was to portray the culture of the city, and I asked her to create something that showcases not just landmarks synonymous with Hyderabad but also the bustling life around these areas. So we have a Charminar, Golconda, Qutb Shahi Tombs etc forming the mural along with images of skilled chefs whipping up the famous Hyderabadi Biryani, haleem and sheermal,” explains Amar Chowdhary, proprietor of TenHill. The black and white mural, which took a week to complete, is the perfect foil for the restaurant’s otherwise bright décor.
The newly-opened Hyderabad Times Café (HTC) in Jubilee Hills has a wall mural in black acrylic against a white background in one of its dining areas. “Keeping with the name of our café, we wanted to do something with the décor that would have a city connect. Hence, we had artist Aamira Hussaini create a sketch of all the popular landmarks in the city including Taj Krishna and the Hussain Sagar to cover one wall in our café,” says Rizwan M., manager operations at HTC.
Aamira, who has created murals for several office spaces and hospitals in the past, says that this was her first stint with a commercial establishment. “Zeeshan, the owner, is a friend and he wanted something done on one particular wall. He gave me a free hand and I thought why not do a city-specific mural. So what I created is an abstract that highlights various monuments and sights in the city. It took me around two days to complete it,” she says.
