Roastery Coffee House Kolkata – What’s Brewing?
Kolkata in recent years has seen a huge boom in the Café culture which seems to have permuted into every corner of the City of Joy. Hanging out with friends, family outings, work or “me time” the Café has become the destination for all the above. Roastery Coffee House Kolkata which launched its Kolkata outlet on 21st June 2019 quite literally took the city by storm. I was invited to their prelaunch and instantly fell in love with RCH as it is popularly known. Located on the ground floor of the South India Club it has a beautiful vibe right from the minute you set foot into the place. A delightful alfresco area with lovely wooden and marble tables and wrought iron garden chairs to the lovely quaint interiors instills a feeling of instant comfort and warmth that envelops you. Add to that the excellent coffee and delicious food and it’s a winner all the way.
I am an eternal optimist and I feel quite delighted when I see a brand flourish & grow from strength to strength especially during these pandemic times when our F&B and hospitality industry has faced so many challenges. The first Roastery Coffee House was founded in Hyderabad on 26th July 2017 by Nishant Sinha, it was created with one goal: to serve great and consistent coffee, and share it with as many people as possible. It is one of their cherished principles to treasure the value chain from crop to cup, Nishant said during our chat as well as ensure paying fair prices to the coffee farmers to build a responsible and sustainable business model.
Nishant Sinha’s passion and ardent love for Coffee saw him launch Roastery Coffee House Hyderabad which was an unprecedented success. RCH curates unique coffee experiences with fresh, seasonal produce sourced from the local and the best coffee farms across India and further roasted to perfection to elevate the coffee experience for coffee lovers.
Kolkata Roastery Coffee House is the brand’s second cafe located on the ground floor of the legendary South India Club that was started by Nobel laureate Sir C V Raman. The 100- seater café features a serene alfresco courtyard and lovely indoor seating. Both cafes offer a multi cuisine menu to complement that perfect cup of joy they take so much pride in serving to their patrons. At Roastery Coffee House, coffee beans are sourced from India’s finest farms and roasted to perfection in their Giesen Roasting Machine. Some of the delectable & unique coffee varieties offered are – Harley Estate Grappa, Black Honey Balur Estate, Thogarihunkal Estate Honey Sun Dried Coffee, Monsoon Malabar (Pride of India), Red Honey (Cryatal Valley), and Carbonic Maceration (Harley Estate), to name a few.
A hotel management graduate himself, Nahant’s vision for Roastery Coffee House is backed by serious research and legwork. He aims to expand the brand’s presence across all metros and eventually take it international. Both his cafés have already carved a niche and earned multiple recognitions. An avid traveler, he loves exploring varieties in coffee and cacao. Sit down with him over a cup of coffee and he will happily share anecdotes from his numerous travels to farms across India, Puducherry, Paris, Florence, South India to quote him ‘Roasting coffee equals meditation for me’, says Nishant. His passion for coffee and his dedication towards building RCH is commendable and something I admire. It to me is certainly one of the reasons that the pandemic or lockdown have not deterred the wonderful growth curve of RCH. This spirit of turning adversity into advantage is exactly the shot in the arm that our industry needs in these troubled times. Nishant’s never say die attitude has made sure that the next RCH destination will be in Noida (NCR) and plans for more cafés are already underway. Today despite all the setbacks the F&B sector has faced due to Covid-19, Roastery Coffee House does an annual turnover of 10 crores out of which 35% of the revenue is contributed by Kolkata which has just completed two years of operations. The Kolkata Café does approximately 200 covers a day on an average and if the long lines and patient waiting for a table every single evening for its patrons is the marker to go by there is going to be exponential growth once the pandemic restrictions on reduced timing & 50% seating are removed.
Roastery Coffee House which started with a 30 seater café in Hyderabad in 2017 now seats 140 and Kolkata which started with 50 seats has doubled its covers. When I asked Nishant why Kolkata was chosen as the city for the second RCH he said, “The people of Kolkata are really passionate about their food, and also embrace anything new which comes up. Though it’s a tea drinking state we realized that there were a fair number of coffee drinkers. Roastery Hyderabad gets lots of guests who come from Kolkata and they really liked our product. They gave us the confidence of opening our second Roastery Coffee House here. They were very sure if we open it will do well and they were absolutely right.”
For me though as someone who literally visits and works out of coffee shops almost on a daily basis the one trend that grabbed my interest was the guests who patronized Roastery Kolkata. The demographics were quite unique. While most Cafés have a similar kind of patronage, college kids, young professionals, the fashionable crowd and so on, Roastery Kolkata has an absolutely mixed patronage, people from all walks of life and of all ages. If one table has a young man working on his laptop, the next will have a middle aged couple and a third a bunch of students and the fourth a family with young kids and grandparents all out together. This plus the ambiance with its mix of elegant air conditioned comfort as well as the beautiful al fresco courtyard in the heart of the city certainly has been a massive plus.
The coffee of course is the absolute star of the show …. Espresso, Cappuccino, Cold Brew, Iced Coffee, Pour Over and their unique signature Cascara … they have a huge and extensive coffee menu. When I spoke to Nishant he said that their Cascara , Cold Brew , Cold Coffee, Pour Over are a few among the popular orders but they quite literally have a coffee for everyone’s taste and palate. This in-depth research and I feel the respect the coffee aficionado is accorded as well as a genuine desire to educate and showcase the versatility of coffee have been in my opinion another huge factor in RCH India’s success. Combine that with their delicious and hearty food and it’s an unbeatable combination. Good ingredients and excellent portion sizes add further value to the customer retention.
Roastery Coffee House leaves no stone unturned to celebrate its coffee. They celebrated successful completion of two years of operations recently and they released a fantastic “Anniversary Blend” for their patrons which uses beans from three coffee estates. Their super convenient Insta Pour Sachets are a permanent fixture in my home because the sheer convenience in making yourself a cup of your favorite coffee at home is bliss. Their #bringroasteryhome Campaign all through the pandemic made sure we never missed out on our favorite beverages.
Despite the fact that their coffee is in the limelight their food is hugely popular with their patrons. They introduced handmade pastas as part of their second birthday celebrations. They have a large menu offering all the café favorites from salads, sandwiches, eggs made to order, pastas and burgers. The Southwest Chicken Fingers, Handmade Pastas, Baked Chicken, Fish & Chips, Twice Baked Chocolate Cake, Cheesecake are some of the top draws from their menu.
All these individual elements have come together in perfect harmony to contribute to Roastery Coffee House’s success. Add to that Nishant Sinha’s drive and passion not just to grow the tribe of coffee enthusiasts like myself but also to genuinely educate the consumer to appreciate coffee has made sure that we will see many more Roastery successes dot the national cityscape.
