The place is expectedly slow for a hot Wednesday morning. But that’s when the Social Media Influencer is out and about. The chic, summery-yet-fresh minimalist vibe at Quick Brown Fox (QBF) is an automatic draw for the Influencer, who, along with her photographer friend has been shooting with a tall glass of coffee in one hand and one beauty product in the other.
A view of the cafe’s interiors
“Many such people ask us if they can use our area for their shoots,” says Vaibhav Bindal, coffee roaster and founder-owner of the cafe. “But we limit this to between 10 a.m. and noon.” This is testament QBF’s quaintness, no doubt. But nestled in one of the side-alleys at Delhi’s new left-of-cool and almost-too-far Dhan Mill Compound, it’s only a reward for those who live nearby or can brave peak hour South Delhi traffic.
Enter, and the light filtering through its bay windows, the brightly cool pops of colour in the interiors, and the on-loop chill-hop playlists will put you at ease immediately. The cafe’s appeal though — both food and coffee, which make it dififerent from the bigger, more prominent Cafe Dori in the compound — isn’t far from the likes of the more-established Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters, already in six locations across the city.
If you’re picky, however, QBF offers both short black and a long black, and not just a generic espresso. Interestingly, they mention a piccolo latte on the menu (and not a cortado, like most places, including Blue Tokai, do). Currently, all their espresso-based beverages are using only a medium roast from the Badnekhan Estate in Chikmaglur, Karnataka. This is only one of five roasts their menu offers, but Bindal says a change-up is underway.
His roasting practices are heavily inspired by Japanese roasteries, so it feels very consistent that the cafe’s food has its fair share of these influences too. The Scampi Benedict and the Japanese salad are examples, with their creative use of ponzu sauce. The large shrimp in the first is just delicately cooked, comes with an eggs benedict flecked with a hot “Nepali” chutney, sauteed spinach, a base toast layered generously with cooked and spiced tomatoes. But the highlight really is the ponzu hollandaise: tart, creamy, and just right. The portion is generous, and the presentation, eye-catching.
The Japanese salad is a perfect summer dish, with pear, cucumber and snake melon: lightly sweet, tangy, and refreshing. Ponzu here comes in a more watery avatar, layered with handfuls of puffed rice. If you’re averse to performing a certain bovine-like masticating action that salads usually demand, this is the perfect alternative: cold soup and fresh fruit rolled into one.
Their ricotta (in the very regular ricotta and fig open toast, with rosemary and drizzled honey), is house-made. QBF re-uses the cow milk that is steamed for their coffee beverages, to make this cheese, upcycling within their kitchen.
QBF is apleasant experience overall. In terms of a coffee roastery, there’s not much it seems to do differently from the handful of roasteries of the third wave of coffee in India; and as a cafe, there’s nothing to especially distinguish its appeal, unless you count Bindal’s prized Probat coffee roaster, standing prominently in a glass-doored alcove.
23A, Dhan Mill Compound, 100 Feet Road, Chhattarpur; ₹1,000 for two
