What defines a café in 2023?

Want a croissant with a cocktail? Leave behind your laptop and head to a café in Mumbai

- Jahnabee Borah

About a decade ago, a friend and I would make plans-albeit, unrealistic-to go for a breakfast with champagne. We were in the early days of our careers though: We didn't know where we would find such a breakfast, except at five-star hotels that were out of reach for us rookie journalists.

Maybe things would have been a tad different if it was the Mumbai of 2023, where the practice of cafés serving alcohol seems to be evolving into a clear trend. One may still not be able to get champagne but one can now sip on a decent wine with breakfast at a hip café in this era of Succession. In fact, when the café Veronica opened in Bandra in February, I visited with friends and ordered momos, tacos and the white wine Grüner Veltliner from Austria. It was unexpected-a unique wine like the Grüner, which is not mass-produced, is hard to come by even at gourmet restaurants in the city.