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Journalism of Courage
With his sharp wit and long memory, Boman Kohinoor is a born storyteller. On a relatively quiet Monday, we meet him at Britannia & Co., the restaurant that his family has been running for three generations. At 96, Kohinoor is exactly as old as the iconic eatery. Over a hot cup of tea (for him) and cold glasses of Raspberry soda (for us), he recounts episodes from the history of the family business. How, for instance, when he had taken over the restaurant in 1943, during the Second World War, Kohinoor almost immediately had to hand it over to the authorities for “war purposes”.
He says, “I had a good solicitor and the British paid us full compensation in advance. I was very shocked that as soon as the war was over, the very next day, I was handed the key back.” The flip side, however, was that the interiors had been destroyed. “My father had made a grand restaurant with wood panelling, mirrors and paintings. All that was gone. Only the furniture, which we had stored in a godown, was safe,” he says.
Over the decades, a certain decrepitude might have set in, but that doesn’t matter to the crowd that throngs the place during lunch hours to feast on its famous berry pulao and sali boti. The food has, of course, remained deliciously consistent over the year. But what makes this restaurant a Mumbai icon is less tangible than a perfectly cooked, lightly spiced piece of boneless mutton. Britannia has been witness to a city that has changed multiple times in the last nine decades, and the fortunes of the family that has run it during this period. On busy days, the Kohinoor paterfamilias can be seen taking orders from customers, taking time out to chat with people, narrating the history of the restaurant and making recommendations from the menu.
Besides the interiors, a lot has changed since Kohinoor’s father, Rashid, established Britannia in 1923. The menu, which was once all “Continental” so as to better serve the mostly British clientele, is now different. Parsi and Mughlai dishes dominate, the former added to the menu by Kohinoor’s late wife, Bachan. The working hours have come down from 15 to five. Because of popular demand, they have recently started serving dinner on Saturdays. But Kohinoor remains doubtful of the future since his sons, Romin and Afshin, who run the place, are not too keen on staying in the business for too long.
There’s also the problem of the restaurant’s lease, which expired three months ago. “This is all Bombay Port Trust’s land. For the last 10 years or so, we’ve been hearing that the rents will go up by 10 times. The matter is in the Supreme Court now. Our landlord has said that if the court says so, we might also have to pay arrears. If that happens, we’ll have to close,” says Kohinoor.
This is why they haven’t spent too much money on the restaurant. He points to a portion of unplastered ceiling. “Some customers call it ‘old world charm’,” he chuckles, “But I would just prefer to get it repaired.”
