For someone with a varied background such as engineering, management and journalism, venturing into a travel cafe might look surprising. But there's more to the travel cafe at Hauz Khas Village in New Delhi than food. Started by Ajay Jain, travel writer and curator, Kunzum Travel Cafe happened with an idea to grab more footfalls at his photo gallery.
Jain, after studying journalism, worked with a newspaper, then started his own youth newspaper, became a freelancer and then a tech blogger. However, in 2007, at 37, he decided to focus on travel photography and travelogues as a genre. On his first journey to Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, the same year, he went to Kunzum La. When he returned to Delhi, he decided to call his blog Kunzum.com, taking inspiration from the place's funky name.
Though he was writing books simultaneously, photography (around the town) kept him busy. He also managed to showcase his works at popular places in the city. But, he was looking for a permanent place to showcase his pictures. In 2009, he picked up a small cozy place nestled between the narrow bylanes of Hauz Khas Village, which is now called Kunzum Travel Cafe. He ran it as a gallery for a year and, in June 2010, he converted it into a cafe and started serving tea, coffee and biscuits.
“Since people don't go to photo galleries, we thought of converting the gallery into a funky cafe to increase the footfalls. We didn't want to get into the food business but started serving tea, coffee and biscuits to give it a cafe-like feel. We just wanted it to be a place where people can come with a free mind, hang around and talk, look at the pictures, read books, share their travel journeys and listen to our travel stories. It's a place where creativity and travel flourish,” he says.
Unlike other cafes, the seats are not scattered around the cafe but placed in an oval shape facing each other. The idea, Jain says, was to make it a place where people come and exchange travel stories and inspire others to travel.
“We don't want any entry and exit barriers. Though we serve tea, coffee and biscuits, we leave it to the people to decide whether they want to pay anything or not,” he says.
The cafe serves the best of Indian coffee that is sourced specially from Coorg. One of the most interesting flavour is Monsoon Malabar, he says.
Jain also curates trips and special experiences for people from the cafe. “What we really want to do is to show India to not just foreigners but also to Indians because most Indians have not explored the real India. We want to inspire and inform people about travelling,” he says.
Kunzum Travel Cafe is not the only place in Delhi. Food connoisseurs are constantly innovating their palette to attract eyeballs. Cafes in the National Capital Region are also promoting a different culture, and adventure sports is on many entrepreneurs' kitty.
Take, for instance, Ciclo Cafe in Gurugram that is themed on a bicycle cafe. Started by Ashish Thadani and his partner Arun Alagappan, president of TI Cycles, Ciclo Cafe is a first-of-its-kind cafe that promotes cycling as a sport.
“Through the cafe, we wanted to promote outdoor activity among people. What could be a better sport than cycling? Most customers who visit are not the ones who park the car somewhere and take a cycle instead to commute. But they will come to Ciclo for a meal. Our aim is not to sell them a bicycle but to familiarise them with the changing technology and persuade them to ride one. So, for that, we also give bikes on rent to help them get them acquainted to the bicycle again,” says Thadani.
The Gurugram cafe is the third branch of the cafe in the country. Here, a variety of freshly prepared food is served to satiate the taste buds.
“When Arun approached us, he wasn't aware that I am also a passionate cyclist. So, we immediately agreed to work on the concept of the cycle cafe. We did Chennai as a palette in 2015 and it received a great response and then thought why not take this concept to other cities as well. Therefore, we opened the cafe in Hyderabad and later in Gurugram,” says Thadani.
Besides food, in the basement, there is a shop where high-end bicycles, with cost ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 7,00,000, along with accessories, are sold. Here, one can fulfil all needs ranging from cycle's servicing to purchasing safety gears and others accessories that bikers usually require while riding.
Taking the passion of adventure sports to another level is The Bikers Cafe where everything is inspired by the soul called biking and not really the machine called the bike. “Everything is made to order for the concept, and was not designed by an interior designer. It is done by the bikers and run by the bikers,” says Sanjay Yadav, the owner and also a passionate biker.
Everything in the cafe has a story to share, whether it is the cutlery, dispensers, paintings as well as the wall hangings. On the walls hang the flags of different brands of the bike to educate laymen about the countries the various brands belong to. The furniture is also cleverly done by putting loops behind the chairs to allow biker's to keep their helmets.
The menu is also planned keeping the biker's health in mind. The food is inspired from a biker's or traveller's journey across the world. In fact, it is the first cafe in India to introduce body juices that are detoxifying, organic as well as fresh, which come without sugar and salt.
“We have kidney and liver juice, eye and skin juice, anti-ageing juice and weight-loss juice. We use honey and rock salt for sweet and salty flavour. The eye and skin juice boosts Vitamin A and C. This is prepared by adding cucumber, honey, amla and carrot. There's heart and mind juice that combines apple and tomato,” he says.
The cafe is also working for the first biker's brewery in the world. “None of the motor cafes in the world have a brewery. We will be the first one to have it, which will be connected to the most popular routes of biking in the world and the most popular beers there,” he says.
