If Fort Kochi is the ultimate tourist destination in the city, its crown jewel is undoubtedly the extremely popular Kashi Art Cafe at Burger Street.It’s a vibrant cafe, housed in a heritage building, where people can be seen languorously sitting about enjoying their fresh, roasted coffee and soaking in the artistic aura of the place.Started in 1997, Kashi Art Café was not known to many in Kochi and remained a rather quaint, niche little place.But as time went by, its savoury combination of delectable food and art started attracting visitors.But it was spiritual leader Dalai Lama’s visit a few years ago to the cafe, who came for an exhibition of selected cartoons on the Tibet, that suddenly brought Kashi into the limelight.For Anoop and his wife Dorrie, the owners of Kashi, the aim of the place is to promote fine contemporary art.The idea of the cafe itself came to them from the experiences they had gathered during their numerous travels.The place is housed in a 300 years old Dutch building that gives it a nice, heritage appeal.It’s not difficult to see why the place is so wonderfully appealing to its loyal customers, given its perfect blend of art, nature and delicious food.The cafe is understandably more popular among foreigners, since contemporary art appeals to them more than localites.However, the place does see national buyers for the artifacts from Mumbai, Delhi and other metropolitan cities.Many painting exhibitions are held here regularly, and the best one is awarded each year.The cafe has its own ‘Kashi Awards for Visual Arts’ , where an esteemed jury gives out the prize.This idea is essentially to promote amateur artists.Of course, for owners Anoop and Dorrie, giving their customers a great overall experience is what matters.“The motto of the coffee shop is to serve fresh and tasty food.We like to keep thing simple here.That may be one of the reasons for its popularity.” Continental food outshines anything else at Kashi art café.Chocolate cake is a permanent item on the menu, while any one more variety of cake is also offered.American breakfast is offered at any time of the day.Lunch includes assorted sandwiches, salads and a hearty soup of the day.And of course the perfect accompaniment to freshly made cakes and pies is the special cup of coffee here.Prasanth, in charge of café says, “It’s not about coming up with fancy food, but providing perfectly fresh and delicious food.We do not use artificial colours, substitutes or preservatives.Hence, we take care to bake cake keeping in mind the number of guests.The usage of pure butter instead of margarines makes the baked food tastier.” The other attraction here is the ‘French pressed coffee’ made using traditional press pots, unlike today’s modern coffee makers.This accentuates the aroma and taste and that matters when your coffee is made of specially roasted beans with a proportionate mix of arabica and robusta.The coffee is not only made with the help of traditional equipments, but even the coffee beans are grounded using mechanical old fashioned grinder.The workers at the café live like a family, with a sense of keen dedication for the place.Catherine, a tourist from England says, “I am impressed with Kashi, even though art cafés are quite common in my country.This is the first art café that I am coming across in South India.” The architecture of the cafe is pretty interesting.She adds, “The in-built seating arrangements provide an authentic look to the place.” Overall, an experience that might delight many.
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