“I want to call this the Tinder table. Or maybe the Bumble table,” chuckles Nirav Shah, discussing the 24-seater community table that occupies pride of place at his newly-launched café, Bask. “Or, let’s call it the Swipe Right table,” he says, clearly delighted at the idea. “A lot of people will end up making friends here.”
In 1999, Nirav and his two brothers, Bhavesh and Pratik, started a little coffee shop on Chennai’s quiet, leafy Greenways Road, with a short vegetarian menu, a basic Krups home coffee machine and a good idea, backed with the courage that comes from having no experience. They were straight out of college, and the space — named Coffee? — quickly filled with friends, and friends of friends, till it closed in 2008.
Food at Bask by Coffee?
In 2021, more than two decades after the first launch, they came together again on a whim to see if they could recreate that magic, in a city that seemed very different from the one they knew in the 1990s. Launched just as the pandemic was slowly petering out, the new cafe – named ‘Coffee? since 1999’ in a nod to the past – was helmed by Nirav, by now a well-known cinematographer, along with Bhavesh and his wife Mona, both of whom had worked with Chennai’s popular Satyam Cinemas.
This time, however the Krups wouldn’t cut it — they invested in a swanky Italian Sanremo Opera 2.O for the espressos, then added all the necessary accoutrements required of a new age coffee shop for pourovers: the chemex, V60, Aeropress and Kalita.
Outdoor seating area at Bask by Coffee?
The space was quickly packed, again with friends, and new-found friends. So now, they’re taking their next leap of faith and setting up a second café at a sprawling bungalow on Kasturi Rangan Road, called Bask by Coffee? And this time, their Italian Sanremo Opera is teamed with Flow, an innovative coffee telemetry system that ensures consistency.
Spread over more than 5,000 feet, Bask bravely puts its faith in Chennai’s weather — with lots of relaxed outdoor seating. “We are looking at creating a casual café, with great food and coffee,” says Nirav, adding that the first open area will become their most social space. “We can use it for events, like stand up comedy, or live music.” It flows into a quieter zone behind shaded by trees. The air-conditioned area has a couple of semi-private rooms, and an old-school mosaic staircase, worn with age, leads to a breezy balcony upstairs.
Bask has been built to encourage conversation. “We want this to be a community space, just like Coffee?’ says Nirav. Over refreshing glasses of citrusy cold brew, and a platter filled with creamy hummus, roasted chickpeas and crunchy sourdough toast, Mona explains how her customers at Coffee? treat the café as a third space, after home and the office, using it to network and hangout. “We have people who come everyday, and even customers who come twice a day,” she says, adding that they hope Bask will offer a similarly welcoming vibe.
Torched figs and buratta on toast
Chef Deepesh Attupurath Chandran, who created the comfort food menu at Coffee?, can flex now that he has a much bigger kitchen at Bask, with teams and areas set apart for Indian, Chinese and continental fare. He starts loading the table with his signature dishes: curls of Norwegian salmon set on sourdough toast slathered generously with cream cheese; a traditional chicken Caesar salad made with anchovies; an addictive Sichuan chicken feisty with crackling chillies; and fresh figs torched with honey, served on toast with burrata and rocket.
“The idea is to create comfort food that people can eat everyday,” says Deepesh, adding “So we try to keep it lighter and relatively healthy.” He adds, deadpan, “The menu will keep evolving by time, season, people...” Bhavesh laughs in response, “Our menu keeps getting adulterated by our regulars,” he states, adding that constant customisation has resulted in completely new items being added to the menu: peri peri chicken fries, pita pizzas and their rice bowls, for instance.
(From left to right) Bhavesh, Mona and Nirav Shah of Bask by Coffee?
While the kitchen is having fun with their new tandoor, pizza oven and sous vide machine, Deepesh is sensibly sticking to creating food that is easy to order, and easy to eat, sometimes adding a signature twist to make it his own. Cue his personal favourite: a creamy dal makhani topped with chilli garlic butter and served with naan. Or even just a regular buttery pound cake, reminiscent of childhood birthday parties, bright with fresh oranges and studded with cranberries.
“Dependability is very important for us,” says Nirav. “Bask may be fancier from the outside, but the warmth at the core is the same. We want to make you happy, we want to serve good food, and we want to create a space that you will keep returning to.”
Bask by Coffee? Is open from 11 am to midnight. It is at 11/6, Kasturi Rangan Road, Kasturi Estate, Teynampet. A meal for two costs roughly ₹1,500
