yesterday we traversed through fort kochi but today let me zip you away to nagpur. if you want a continuous story.. errr… wrong place. i am fickle in all kinds of ways. and today i feel like telling you about this brilliant place we ‘discovered’ in nagpur. yeah, i can see you shaking your head at the word ‘discovered’. it is such an over-used and hazar-abused term today.it’s not an actual “discovery” but a google search. having said that, a lot of google searches can lead to the usual and mundane, and sometimes it is the users skill to find the surprise? yes, its me — i do find awesome stuff on google… 😀

ok… getting on with the story – literally!

we landed in nagpur on our way to kanha (you saw the pictures of the tigers from bandhavgarh yesterday, same holiday… if you haven’t here is the link)… early morning flight + low-cost airline = ravenous travellers. we needed some food and quickly. but in nagpur? yes, we could have done the down-the-road udipi guy but didn’t really feel like a dosa. and via google i chanced upon an article about “THE BREAKFAST STORY“… any title or name with the word story in it gets my fancy… yes, i can be that easily pleased. so read more, and in 1 minute we were making our way there.

the breakfast story is a cute little place in the ground floor of a house… it feels like you are in someone’s home for a meal and that’s the aim of the owners. the bunch of people milling around you look like friends or cousins running the business and the mom+dad are in the kitchen! one of the youngsters is also in the kitchen cooking! there are no grim, disconnected waiters, but people who could be your neighbours. that’s a new, even for a now-seasoned mumbaikar… this is not meant in a classist way, but in a ‘modern’ restaurant its awesome to have someone like yourself talk to you through the menu. it definitely adds to the experience. and given that it looked like a family mulling around it literally felt like we were IN THEIR HOUSE!

there is the community table that bombay is so used to now (please note the usage of the sobo term bombay) but in nagpur it’s huge. they explained to us what it meant around 2 or 3 times to be sure we wouldn’t object when some other group came and sat next to us.

we sat next to a bunch of localites and chatted with them. this is one of the first-of-its-kind places in nagpur. evident given that people were waiting for more than 30 minutes for a table to sit… and this is breakfast… in a country of quick dosas i was pleasantly surprised that large groups actually waiting for their sunday breakfast. we had some scrambled eggs, a grilled sandwich they forgot to serve us for a long time, a mango shake and a caramel custard. bizarre combination, but i don’t know when i will go to nagpur again and to breakfast story — so a slice of their menu! we also ordered a coffee and like true south indians got espresso (i.e. decoction) and asked for warm milk. to make our home-brewed-filter-kaapi… stupid idea, it wasn’t that great! should have stuck with the cappuccino.

 

overall, great place. simple ambience and they also have outdoor seating. quirky customs that might make it really stand out — like the ‘cartoonised’ menu card, the cartoons printed on the table top, the blackboard menu above the kitchen counter and the bill comes in a book (ours came in a j. krishnamurthy book).  though, i wonder what happens for lunch and dinner? do they shut shop or do they serve an all-day breakfast menu. not sure. but if it’s an all-day breakfast menu then they might just be ahead of mumbai in that game!

if you find yourself in nagpur and are wondering where to hang out. i would definitely recommend the breakfast story!