Setting the table with a slice of heritage

Restaurateurs are transforming heritage homes, bungalows and palaces into artisanal cafés, bars and dining spots

- Nivedita Jayaram Pawar

If you live in Mumbai, you don't need a time machine to imagine yourself dining in the Bombay of yore. You need to visit the Circle Sixty Nine bistro at Kathiwada City House, an art, food, wellness and culture centre. Or take in the charm of Scarlett House restaurant set inside a 90-year-old Portuguese bungalow. Or head to Subko for coffee and bakes in a 1920s house in Bandra.

Across India, a growing number of restaurateurs are transforming old structures into vibrant new dining spots. While it actively preserves and highlights these buildings, it also gives the public fresh and engaging ways to appreciate their significance.

Mumbai's Kathiwada City House, which was built in the Art Deco style in the 1940s, once belonged to Jehangir Nicholson, then sheriff of the city and a prominent art collector. "Any historical building has collected energy over many years. In maximum cities like Mumbai there are very few naturally historic buildings which are repurposed. A European-style bistro in a heritage Art Deco bungalow is a heady combination," explains owner Sangita Kathiwada.

The bistro is steeped in layers of history as well as art, particularly by M.F. Husain. Not his famous horses, but furniture sketches. "This is from the time when he was painting movie posters, much before he became 'Husain the artist.' These were the drawings for the furniture he made for the royal family of Dhrangadgra in Gujarat," she reveals. The barringtonia trees that drape the building have been photographed and printed on napkins and plates. The menu is a mix of salads, pastas and oven-fresh breads.