Code for comfort

With an all-vegetarian menu that offers interesting riffs on comfort food dishes, a new all-day dining café in Juhu gets most things right

In the context of Mumbai’s vibrant, hyper-evolutionary F&B culinary scene, if there ever were such a thing as an award for the city’s most showcased PIN code, it would go to Juhu’s much-feted 400049. Referred to simply as ‘49’, not only is the main, arterial Juhu Tara Road dotted with all sorts of dining and drinking-out options, but the number 49 itself has been repeatedly co-opted by local establishments, both as prefixes and suffixes to their brand names.

While readers of a certain vintage like this writer might remember boogieing our Saturday nights away at the popular J49 nightclub in the ’90s, the PIN code is enjoying a different outing these days. The recently-opened Cafe 49 is as far away as it can get from a dark adrenaline-charged nightclub in terms of (its) vibe and ambience.

Sisters Ashna and Nitisha Mehta, whose family owns The Emerald Hotel, run this modest-sized, all-day, all-vegetarian café that is located in the same building. Exuding a chilled out vibe — replete with off-white brick walls, faux Portuguese azulejos, tile-topped tables and comfortable bent wood chairs — the open kitchen café also pays homage to a common trend. Yes, the ubiquitous selfie corner here takes the form of a floral arch framing a pair of colourful angel wings.

Salsa pani puri

But in keeping with our aforementioned ‘vintage’ predisposition, we banish the pleas of our dining companion for a photo op. Instead we settle down on a couple teal colour upholstered high chairs at a tall corner table for a lazy lunch that’s laden with interesting reimagined comfort foods that are, for the want of a better term, cuisine-agnostic.

Take for example the Mumbai-meets-Mexico City pairing of Salsa pani puri (Rs 300). Here, six puris are filled with ragda, dotted with a garlic aioli and sat atop shot glasses of salsa that boasts of full-bodied zest and innovation.

Giving a hipster chic fillip to Middle Eastern flat bread is the café’s jet black activated charcoal-enhanced one (Rs 400) topped with smoked veggies and lashings of a cheddar-mozzarella blend of cheese. The geographically apt Uptown martini (Rs 350) is a refreshing libation with passion fruit juice, honey and mint jazzing up the dry gin base. Reminding us of a well-made savoury French crepe is the spinach, corn and feta option (Rs 325) that is served with a gooey cheese fondue sauce making for messy satisfaction.

Uptown martini

Celebrating both, the onset of spring and the Veri Peri colour of 2022, is the vibrant-hued duo of the Berry blast mocktail (Rs 225) and the aesthetically plated Blueberry cheese fudge tart (Rs 300). Our afternoon’s sole dessert makes for an unusual pairing of blueberries with chocolate fudge. This sits in a crumbly shortcrust pastry base and is topped with a white chocolate ring, piped lavender foam and drizzled with blueberry syrup. Sheer bliss.

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