Pune on my plate: How a cafe is playing with time, space and delicious food

For two years, Cafe Lento, located in a modern block in Koregaon Park, was a work in progress as it acquired its chic dilapidated burnish look, antithetical to the modern cafes with their clean lines and minimalist, almost functional, decor.

Like a genteel establishment from an old era, Cafe Lento doesn’t announce itself loudly. It is quite difficult to spot if you are walking or driving around without looking for it. Yet, it has won a following in the month that it has been open. On a week-day afternoon, every table is buzzing with conversations.

The first impression is that you have stumbled into an old-time family home. The fading yellowing walls, stained glass, rough surfaces, mosaic floor, period furniture, iron railings. In nooks, there are old black-and-white photographs. Then, you look up. What are those things on the ceiling? Dead vines lie entangled overhead and their thin shoots fall like rain over the heads of visitors. At some places, green leaves announce an intention to take over the entire space. The wilderness weaves through the architecture.

“Lento means ‘slow’ in Portuguese. By slow, we mean, not slow living, but the sense that this place has evolved over centuries. The starting point of our design concept is ‘a ruin’. Imagine a cafe existed 100 years back. Then, it was abandoned, dilapidated and became a ruin. Now, how do we make that ruin beautiful and livable again?” says Nicky Ramnani, one of the partners of Cafe Lento.

The people behind the cafe are the founders of Second House restaurant in a century-old Portuguese house in Goa, and The Daily All Day restaurants in Mumbai and Pune. Dishant Pritamani, Nicky Ramnani and other partners first opened Lento Goa in Saligao before Pune called out.

Architect Faizaan Khatri took the cue from another architect, Ayaz Basrai, who had worked on Lento Goa. The brief was simple: A beautiful ruin. “We found yellow stones from Jaisalmer because, back in the day, there was no brick or cement. It was just stones and arches and cast iron. We’ve gone back to those materials,” says Ramnani. They broke an entire wall and put a floor-to-ceiling window so that there is maximum sunlight.

Chef Jyoti Singh fulfills the cafe’s purpose, sending out bestsellers that are inspired by his memories and experiences. In his arsenal are cinnamon, various seasonings, sourdough brioche and a variety of ingredients made in-house as well as fresh raw material.

There is chicken soup for breakfast, based on the soup he gets to eat when he goes to his in-laws’ house in Nagaland or what he used to get in Indonesia. Every table orders French toast. The cafe sells out 150 French toasts on Sundays as every table orders at least one. The French toast is balanced and not too sweet, keeping people coming back for more. Singh, who is from Jharkhand, has worked in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and all over India, travels that are reflected in the food. “The exposure to cuisines is very diverse,” he says. When he began to recreate the familiar Jam and Bread, the chef gave it a twist. The elements are made in-house and he has a unique angle in how they process the whole bread and butter and how it is applied. “The inspiration is all around, from wherever I have worked or however we have grown up,” he says. As diners catch up over the food, it is evident that enjoying the moment needs timeless cuisine.