What paved the way for Delhi’s cafe culture before the matchas and lattes?

Cafes today are made for lingering – over endless cups of cappuccinos or matchas, working on your laptop, networking with colleagues or indulging in conversations with friends. However, back in the 1940s, there weren’t many places in the capital where one could do that. There were roadside chai shops, sure, but no organised coffee houses as such, until the United Coffee House (UCH) came up in the heart of the city in 1942. Connaught Place, at that time, was known more for its drapery and equestrian shops, and bakeries and it was up to Lala Hans Raj Kalra to see the potential for a coffee house where people could linger over cups of the hot beverage and spend hours discussing everything from politics to art.

“That is also perhaps the reason it was not named something like a ‘Lazeez Khana’ because we were never about food. We were always about coffee, culture and conversations. It was named United Coffee House because we were unified by thoughts and cultures,” says Akash Kalra, managing director, United Group, who grew up listening to how his grandfather founded the restaurant which is now in its 84th year.

Gatekeeper at the seventy-year-old United Coffee House at Connaught Place in New Delhi on May 02, 2011.
| Photo Credit:
Shanker Chakravarty

With the city centre abuzz with trendy cafes and eateries which have sprung up all in these last eight decades, you would think that the popularity of UCH might have diminished. It’s s a different story at lunchtime on a weekday when we visit the place. Every table of the two-floor restaurant with its high ceilings, patterned flooring, vintage chandeliers, and warm wood accents is occupied by the young as well as the elderly, who are out to indulge in some of the restaurant’s signatures such as Tomato Fish or Chicken à la Kiev. As one of the rare dining institutions in India that predates Independence, UCH seems to have bridged the eras and is not merely surviving, but thriving as well.

The beginning

Lala Hans Raj Kalra was a well-travelled man. With a liquor business in Sialkot, now Pakistan and a restaurant and bar as well as a wine shop in Chandni Chowk, Delhi, business was flourishing. His visionary mind however saw the need for a coffee house in Lutyens Delhi. “He visited Connaught Place in his Pontiac car and realised that while there were many other shops but no place to rendezvous. This is how UCH was born,” says Akash. Pointing at the stunning tapestry on the walls, he shares that the logo on was designed by none other than legendary jewellery Harry Winston and has been on the walls, even after they were redone in 1972. At the time, UCH was frequented by diplomats, statesmen, musicians and poets eager to discuss their ideologies and ideas over cups of hot coffee. 

Food at at UCH
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Sandwiches and savouries were the order of the day until post-Independence, when the café became a full-fledged restaurant offering a range of Indian and Continental dishes. “With Continental food being huge in Calcutta because of gentleman’s clubs and the Cricket Club of India, we recruited many Bengali chefs who were trained by British chefs,” says Akash. The current menu includes many of the signatures right from the 1940s, such as keema samosa and cheese balls to European dishes famous in the 1960s such as tomato fish and chicken ala kiev, popular dishes from the Raj era such as Nargis Ke Kofte and American favourites such as prawn cocktail and hotdog.

Custodian of history

Under the leadership of his father and then Akash himself, the restaurant has kept up with the times and included regional Indian dishes, Oriental and Asian food as well as Mediterranean cuisine. Recounting the time in the early 90s, Akash says that it was when QSRs and five-star restaurants were doing well. “We had a lot of transitions as well and played a lot with the palatability. I brought in a lot of changes, bridging the gap between the old and the new,” he says.

Interiors of UCH
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Calling themselves an owner-driven company as opposed to a chef-driven company, Akash says that they try to retain the ethos of the dish without making too many changes to the original. While UCH remains their flagship restaurant, they have opened smaller outlets named UCH Rewind in places such as Delhi-NCR, Chandigarh and Faridabad among others. Future plans include opening more Rewinds as well as another flagship, maybe in Mumbai.