MUMBAI, JULY 25: The restaurant with the view to die for is no more. For Cafe Naaz, the end came pretty quickly. A flock of civic workers descended on the Irani restaurant perched atop Malabar Hill early on Friday morning. Waving a notice in the face of the employees of the eatery, which offered a spectacular view of the island city coupled with succulent Iranian cuisine like chelo kabab, the eviction squad which arrived in two trucks, had within hours, tossed most of the restaurant out on the pavement.The restaurant's 30-year lease expired about three years ago, but it's six partners managed to hang on to it. A dispute between the partners some months ago ended with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) stepping in.``We weren't even given a notice period, they just came in and began tearing up the place,'' says Sasan Nicknam, nephew of one of the hotel's owners.Standing amid a pile of menu cards and restaurant furniture heaped on the sidewalk, employees of the restaurant are busy turning awayregular customers. ``They keep coming, from as far as Andheri and Borivli as late as 11 in the night, we have to explain,'' says Nicknam.The building itself is no great piece of architecture. But its ambience and the breathtaking view it offered was its unique selling point. From the backpacker's Lonely Planet guide to the quiet corner for senior citizens, for over three decades, the eaterie had etched itself as a landmark on the cityscape.Bollywood too woke up to its breathtaking and uninterrupted view of the city, especially the nighttime neon speckled Queen's Necklace. Dozens of movies, including the Sadak, Aatish, Parinda and more recently Hindustan Ki Kasam, flocked to can visuals. The nearest you could get to aerial photography without getting airborne.``I virtually grew up with the restaurant, I first came here when my brother taught me cycling, I came here on my first date,'' recalls Sarosh Karani. Dropping by for a snack, he was shocked to see the state of this landmark. ``The corporationhasn't been able to do a damn thing about China Garden, they haven't been able to evict the hawkers from before their own headquarters,'' he adds angrily.``I've been coming here for the last five years, it offers a great view and was the only place here where I could get a drink,'' Satyan Bafna a teenager flanked by his friends says matter-of-factly. Now it's just two BMC security guards keeping a round-the-clock vigil on the locked and barred place.Retired Pune-based army captain Jamshed Engineer hoped to bring his friends here to his favourite eating joint in Mumbai, only to be turned back disappointed. ``I liked this place, the food, the view, the samosas,'' he says.Naaz had a staff of nearly 28, including 15 waiters. Ten of them have stayed behind bearing the vagaries of the rain. ``We lived here, we have nowhere else to go,'' says Ravi Pujari, a waiter.
