With the area around Golpark becoming another eclectic food spot in South Kolkata, it came as no surprise when we were invited to Tribe, that opened its doors just a month before the Pujas this year. The facade of the café itself is very inviting with its tall glass windows that accentuate the feeling of it being expansive and we were not wrong in our assumption.
The 60-seater café spread across a 1,850 sq ft of area really stood out for its ample legroom at a time when most cafés have become clumsy, claustrophobic rooms. Designed in warm tones of grey, white and bright yellow, the well-lit interiors made us comfortable from the outset and we began ordering from their newly-drawn up winter menu while chatting with the ‘three musketeers’ behind the joint.
“Since my college days I nurtured a dream of owning a café someday and when my former colleagues, Sanjay Roychowdhury and Pinaki Ghosh agreed to be partners-in-crime, we wasted no time,” says Shilpa Chakraborty, a management consultant and one of the café owners. Having worked long hours in the corporate world, Shilpa and her two business partners wanted to come up with a place where one can just drop in and relax over a cuppa and a book. Hence, there are over 2,000 donated books to choose from the racks adorning one of the walls, or you may also bring along your own paperback.
There’s also a space carved out for live gigs, poetry sessions and chat shows, and to encourage the amateur painter they also display artwork on sections of their walls for two weeks at a time. As we talk, the first entrée from the winter menu arrives at our table — a good old fish and chips, but with a twist. Instead of the crunchy biscuit coating, the basa fillets were coated with a light and fluffy batter and come with a generous dollop of in-house tartar sauce. You could tell from the very taste that it had been made freshly and the best part was that the basa — which has earned disrepute as a cheap and tasteless substitute for bekti – didn’t smell a bit and wasn’t rubbery for a change.
This was followed by Chicken Roulade, a Continental delicacy comprising baked chicken breast stuffed with minced chicken and served with sautéed veggies and brown sauce. It was cooked to perfection and the brown sauce was exceptionally well-balanced. The grilled chicken wrap was another noteworthy item from their winter menu and is highly recommended for its liberal chunks of grilled chicken bathed in a very creamy dressing and wrapped with a house-made tortilla. The taste was delicious and the generous heap of potato crisps made it all the more memorable.
You can also settle for their chicken sausage meatballs or a warm cheesy bowl of chicken risotto made with Arborio rice. They serve a wide array of coffee and tea too and you can choose from a variety of crushed beans that they source from Chikmagalur plantations or the best leaves from the Makaibari tea estates.
“All our coffees have a higher percentage of Arabica, which gives a creamier and more rounded flavour to the drink,” adds Shilpa. For those who prefer it cold, there are mocktails and cold coffee with chocolate for company.
Meal for two `600 (all-inclusive).
sharmishtha.g @newindianexpress.com
@sharmidas