When Sharanya Sankar moved from Chennai to Saibaba Colony in 2002 after her marriage, she had exactly one place to hang out in — the Annapoorna outlet on NSR Road. Opened in April 1989, it was the only big-ticket restaurant in the area.
Today, Sharanya is spoilt for choice — for sandwiches and pastries, there’s Cafe V’s and Cocoa Bay on Bharathi Park Road, Hot Chocolate on NSR Road for Italian and Pan Asian cuisine, and Mithai Mandir and a host of other eateries for short-eats.
New entrants to the locality, which has a nice mix of the business and working class, include Atom, a multi-cuisine restaurant that opened less than a year ago on Alagesan Road, and American brand Mini Melts, which sells ice-cream in pellet form, in a range of flavours. And, if someone is in the mood to indulge in health food, there’s always Lakshmi Shankar Mess on Thadagam Road.
Restaurateurs say that one of the main reasons for Saibaba Colony turning into the city’s food destination is the glut of eateries in R.S. Puram. “Even R.S. Puram is not very hot after the food court in Brookefields came up,” says M.S. Shahnawaz Babu, who recently opened an outlet of his hugely-popular Hot Chocolate on NSR Road (he has a presence in the mall too). The 90-cover restaurant also serves Mexican cuisine, besides a range of pastries.
Vikranth Peeran is co-partner of Cocoa Bay, where LED lanterns, wooden furniture, red and pink bougainvilleas and bamboo chiks provide a sanctuary from the madness outside. He says Saibaba Colony is a great destination for those wanting to start off in the restaurant business. A Cocoa Bay has now also come up in R.S. Puram too. The Colony outlet, which can seat 20 (16 in the terrace and four in an air-conditioned space) serves a range of short-eats and snacks, such as fries, burgers, wraps and sandwiches.
Affordability is an issue too. Prices start at Rs. 35 for a muffin and go up to just Rs. 140 for pasta. Something unthinkable if one has to factor in huge rental overheads.
Vishak Chandrasekaran of V’s, which is about a year old, says rentals in areas such as Race Course, R.S. Puram and Trichy Road were too steep for a beginner, in some cases, almost twice as much or more as Saibaba Colony. “Also, I wanted to start in a place where there were not many such eateries.”
Today, the weekend breakfasts and pizza dinners at V’s have become a huge hit among the local clientele, who also drop by on evenings for a quiet cup of tea and a game of scrabble.
Old favourites such as Mithai Mandir, Mukil’s Donuts, Chai’s and Café Coffee Day continue to draw in crowds.
Ganesh, who used to live in the locality many years ago, was surprised by the change in the food scene when he visited recently. “From chaat shops to high-end kaalan kadais, the roads are buzzing after dusk,” he says.
“And to think our idea of an evening out in our growing-up years was heading to the nearest verkadalai vendor on the street corner. It was an added treat if he had raw mangoes too!”
