Mysuru brews a fresh café culture

The city's classic flavours intermingle with bakeries and cafes as migration and changing work habits bring new customers

- Anita Rao Kashi

Ona humid Wednesday afternoon, tucked away in Mysuru’s leafy Gokulam area, The Organic Café and Bakehouse (TOCB) is packed.

The smell of coffee and baked goods, the sound of clackinglaptopsand snatches of conversations in Kannada and other languages fill the air. Over the last few years, scenes like this have become common across the city.

Mysuru haslong been called “heritage city”, “sandalwood city” and “yoga city”, alongside the more unflattering “laid-back” and “sleepy hollow”. Separated from Bengaluru by about 130 km, it has unwittingly played second fiddle. Lately, people have moved in from elsewhere, including Bengaluru, anda consequence of this migration is the explosion of cafes, delis and new-age bakeries.

“Because of yoga (ashtanga yoga popularised in the 1970s), Mysore has always attracted an international crowd. And to serve this clientele during the ‘shala’ season (September to March), there have been interesting organic cafeslike Dhatu and Depth N Green,” says Vinay Parameshwarappa, founder of experiential travel company Gully Toursand a Mysorean. “Post covid, many folks moved here from Bengaluru, Mumbaiand Delhi, and added to the cosmopolitan nature. The market has responded to this,” he says.