India Coffee House, the pokey little hole on M.G. Road, next to the offices of Deccan Herald, has been shifted to Church Street. But addicts and aficionados of caffeine still get a chance to sample the fare at the old location as part of the informal promotion for the new one.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
They need better marketing. They make fantastic coffee powder but available only at that one location! :(
The Church street place is a bit small, but the food still tastes the same..
hmm… Their Scrambled Egg toast and the coffee are still the best in bangalore.
The waiters are unsmiling.
Sometimes curt.
At times, even rude.
Their attires are grimy.
The cutlery is old, bland and faded.
The ambience induces boredom.
The paint is peeling off the walls.
The menu is restricted.
The furniture is tasteless
Reminds you of a Govt. Office.
Yet.
People go go ga over this place.
The Great Indian Coffee House.
Now on Church Street.
Is this herd mentality?
Or.
Blind belief?
Or.
Is it the cheap price under the garb of being ‘a good brand’ that attracts people to this place?
Simple:
>Yet. People go go ga over this place.
All that you say is true, except the food and coffee is excellent.
Prices are reasonable (not cheap). But you go to the place mainly for the food, and I have been doing that for last 25 years, and just love it..
As with all tastes, yours may be different than mine..;-)
@Simple:
Simple it ain’t no simple! I think it has to do with a bit of Nostalgia..
If you’re yearning for the good old days, just turn off the air conditioning. – Griff Niblack
While all the swish new places look like carbon copies of each other, I think CH still has character – a weird one may be as you point out the seedy details:) But character and uniqueness nevertheless!
Some what like good ol’ Victoria Hotel which made way to yet another mall – Bangalore Central. Any day I would like to have Victoria back with that grand old tree in the midst while you keep looking for those quaintly dressed waiters shimmering in once in an hour:)
Anshuman Patel.
Brilliantly put. I loved Griff Niblack’s quote.
Yes.
It is the yearning for nostalgia, of our good old (young) days that makes it appealing I guess.
Inspite of the greased palms of the scruffy waiters!
Harkol
I too love the scrambled egg with toast :-)
I am a regular at Coffee house, at the current location in Church street you won’t get the colonial feel, it looks like some other cheap hotel. But agreed that the taste and the staff are the same.
Simple: The answer for your question lies in your post, the reason why people go ga-ga over coffee house is a combination of the reasons that you have listed down in your post.
I have another thought.
If a newcomer to Bangalore is taken to Indian Coffee House without telling him that it is a famous brand, he would not find anything special about this drab place.
But.
Tell him that it is an extremely popular hangout, patronised by Bangaloreans since several decades, who love it for its coffee and scrambled eggs, and he will begin to look at it with different eyes.
So much so, that he may even like it.
A brand after all, commands hysteria, without anything being so wonderfully special about it.
@Anshuman Patel
I agree with your post.
A part of Bangalore and and MG Road is relegated to the Recycle Bin of history.
It would be interesting to see what kind of plastic ambiance springs up in its place.
Try other at Avenue Road. the ambience is worse. But who cares, scrambled egg and coffee matters
Simple:
>A brand after all, commands hysteria, without anything being so wonderfully special about it.
I like cooking, and have done so ever since my bachelor years back in 1980s. Eggs were my staple, and for my taste I have alwas done the best omlettes, best burji etc.
But, try as I may, I have never been able to do the scrambled eggs the way Coffee house does. I haven’t had scrambled eggs of that quality in any other hotel (being a frequent traveller, I have tasted many hotel breakfasts, with scrambled eggs).
So, while I think the brand may somewhat influence others, for me it is just the food.
this shows how people are adict to coffee house. It only show that the taste can beat nothing and any amount of showcasing the hotel does not matter, unless the taste is maintained