Leopold Cafe renowned as a Mumbai institution and as a favourite haunt for hungry backpackers
November 27, 2008
SONYA FATAH, THE TORONTO STAR
NEW DELHI–Nabbing a table at Leopold Cafe in Colaba, a south Mumbai neighbourhood that rubs shoulders with the Arabian Sea on one side, likely involves a wait.
The cafe, which opens up onto a bustling shopping street, has a string of tables that are practically on the pavement. The street is filled with makeshift stalls that are set up every morning to lure travellers.
Leopold Cafe is a favourite among the constant stream of backpackers to Colaba but it’s also a south Mumbai institution.
The cafe was always popular but became an international destination after the escaped Australian convict-turned writer Gregory David Roberts made numerous references to it in his 2004 bestseller, Shantaram.
In addition to its long-time local reputation, it’s high on the Lonely Planet checklist of places-to-eat-in.
Colaba is also a stone’s throw from the Gateway to India, a colonial arched structure that forms the city’s southern-most point of entry from the jetties that take people to villages and sights across the water.
The Taj Hotel, one of the city’s oldest hotels that dates back a century, is just across from the Gateway and overlooks a long glimmering stretch of the Arabian Sea.
Its Victorian architecture makes it a landmark building for just about everyone: taxi drivers, visitors from the suburbs, people from the elite cocoon of South Mumbai and, of course, a place to stay for those who can afford its pricey rate, often north of $400 a night.
It was built in 1903 by Jamsetji N. Tata, the Indian industrialist, who believed that Bombay (as Mumbai used to be known) needed a grand hotel to take its place among the great cities of the world.
The Taj was built by the Tata family, and is one of India’s most popular luxury chain hotels, with some properties overseas as well.
South Mumbai is really an enclave of the city’s rich and famous. The streets are broad, flanked in many places by large green parks, fountains, and a mix of turn of the century art deco buildings and earlier Victoria-era structures that remind the city and India of its British colonial heritage.
Victoria Terminus – named after Britain’s long-reigning queen – and now more proudly known as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, after a local historical warrior figure, is one of Mumbai’s tributes to Victorian Gothic architecture that can be seen in several South Asian cities.
As the headquarters of the city’s busy central railway line that brings commuters from the suburbs and into the old city, it’s one of the busiest areas of India’s railway stations, not simply a place for commuters but also a must-see destination for anyone visiting the city.
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