Writer's Cafe, Chennai

When I first came upon an ad in the paper, I was instantly curious and excited. It is always such joy to read the word "writer", heck any word related to "books and words" gets me going. And so, the Writer's Cafe was a place I knew I wanted to visit. 

The place

As luck would have it, a friend and I decided to meet up and I picked this place as the venue [ sly me]. I was there ahead of her, took me a second to find the entrance [it is on the side] and as I walked in all i saw were books lining the walls on either side. It so happened that I visited the space twice in two days, the next day a bunch of us decided to meet her. It was a double whammy for me ! :D

There were tables in the middle. On the right side is another smaller room with the pastry shelves and a black board with more food/drink items listed down. The place has a warm feel to it. They have a floor above which is available for anyone who wants to hold a book club meet or any other literary event. 

This is  a venture between Higginbothams and Mr Mahadevan [Chairman of Oriental Cuisines- Hot breads, Copper Chimney and so on]..  

What sets this place apart from other cafes? Well, it is a CSR Initiative meant to help Burn victims learn baking and again a new lease on life. All who work here [about 7 women are employed here as of now] have been trained by Silke Stadler, a Chef from Switzerland. The profits earned by the cafe will be shared with International Foundation for Crime Foundation and Victim care. Mr Mahadevan is a name associated with several other such initiatives. 

The Food:

Well, the menu is offered on an exam pad, but if you want to see the dessert menu or beverages I would recommend you walk to the other side of the space and take a look. The desserts available are quite exotic..  

We tried the crispy fried spinach and corn starter along with a bruschetta platter as well. Both were good, I loved the crunchy spinach with corn in it. For the mains, we chose the Pesto Zucchini and olives Flammkuchen [really thin crust pizza with pesto and thinly sliced zucchini on top], it is simply out of the world and I highly recommend this to anyone who loves to experiment with food. 

A friend ordered the pickled beetroot and lollo rosso salad with roasted walnuts- there were more greens than the beetroot and it wasn't so great... Another opted for a chicken pasta in white sauce which he enjoyed going by how he polished the plate.

Moving to desserts, on the 1st visit, I opted for the Apple crumble [with chunky apple pieces] that was just yummy. Friend ordered the Tiramisu and Milkmaid cake, both of which were alright. The cake was more like a sponge cake, while Tiramisu lacked coffee flavour.  On the 2nd day, I ordered the Pancakes that are served with honey and cream, quite delicious. Friend ordered for waffles with Maple syrup but it was served with cream and honey [when we enquired, they apologised as Maple syrup wasn't available] We had cappuccino and on the 2nd day I ordered for Masala chai [unfortunately it was Dip tea, which was a bit of a let down]

But overall, it is a lovely place to catch up with friends or just to enjoy some sweet treats. The books lining the shelves are all up for sale- most of which were magazines and food related books. 

The Price:

It works out to about Rs200-300 per person [ again depends on what you order]

Address:

The Writers Cafe is at 98, Peters Lane, Royapettah, Chennai.. [lane ahead of Saravana Bhavan]

Phone: 044 4861 1604