B. Merwaan and Co., Grant Road, Mumbai

The Iranis are the "other" Zoroastrians who have made Mumbai their home along with the Parsis. The Parsis visibly have a greater share of the Mumbaiya wallet, mindshare and the history of the city but the Irani's do have a greater share of the citys facade with numerous corner shop Irani cafe's. The number of cafe's may be dwindling ( a result of rising real estate and business feasibility) and the set ups may mostly be in town rather than suburbs, but the Irani cafe will always be inextricable linked to the Mumbaikar's day to day life and the city's truly cosmopolitan character.
The most obvious reason to like Irani Cafe's, is obviously the food, for the non cholesterol conscious the Brun Maska alone is a reason to preserve such café’s as world heritage sites, add the mawa cakes, samosas, the vegetarian patties and the wondrous egg preparations and we are basically talking wonders of the gastronomical world. The main reason I like the café’s is its dedication to serve the wallets of the common man and the intention to keep the margins wafer thin so that the common Mumbaikar can retain his favorite haunt. Rising real estate prices is obviously the major modern obstacle to the business model and I hope that more café’s can do what Merwaan B. is trying to do and double us as a Kirana store to sustain a long cherished and much lover business. Which brings us to another interesting thought as to how the café’s started in the first place as the prices were always cheaper even on a comparative basis? The answer lies in simple economics, demand and supply. In the Mumbai of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, corner plots were considered unlucky for business by the Gujarati and the Sindhi. The entrepreneurial Irani stepped in and created the ubiquitous corner Irani café to make a living and give Mumbai its unmistakable cosmopolitan character. Unfortunately for the sustainability of the café’s and in an ironical tribute to the Irani’s entrepreneurial competence such false notions no longer exist.
B. Merwaan and Co. has been around since 1914 and has been supplying countless sumptuous meals to weary travelers entering and exiting Grant road station. I was introduced to the café by my cousin Shirsha Guha Thakurta and her friends Delnaaz and Mithun. The three of them, specially Shirsha are responsible for one of the tastiest and definitely one of the largest and filling breakfasts I have had in the city of Mumbai.
The breakfast we had started with a round of vegetable patties, the vegetable patties were filled with primarily carrots and it almost stuns me even when I write that I rate the patty better than any patty that I have tasted in Kolkata’s Nahoum or Flurys. The vegetable patty was followed up by Brun Maska which is nothing but hot Pav with oodles of butter. I have had well buttered pavs and bread earlier but for sheer decadence bordering on obscenity nothing beats the amount of butter on an authentic Brun Maska. Delnaaz, who accompanied us for the meal is the daughter of the proprietor and I think they were being slightly over generous in an effort to impress the bosses daughter, but the description still stands as we were reduced to scraping some of the butter off the pav using knives in an effort to commit lesser sin.
The follow up to the Brun Maska were the Mawa Cakes and the Mawa Samosas, the taste is difficult to describe but I loved them more than any Mawa sweet I have ever had before. The cakes and samosas were just the right temperature to aid the melting of the morsel as it enters your mouth and the sweetness of the Mawa was beyond perfect. This was followed by a double egg half fry with some more brun maska, there was about as much butter on the egg as on the pav. We literally had to beg the mind and the stomach to ask the tongue to stop ordering for more goodies and rounded off the marathon err…. meal with some authentic Irani tea, milky and just with the right amount of kick. A truly brilliant breakfast but with a major downside, driving home after a meal like that can be a real pain! A side note: The mawa cakes and samosas are made at 5:30 AM, so if you go after 7:00 and are even lucky enough to get a few before they are all devoured, they will taste only half as good as they taste when they are really fresh. I agree good food can sometimes be a “labour” of love, but then there is no greater love than the love of eating!
A meal for two at B. Merwaan and Co. will cost you approximately Rs 80/- even if you really gorge.
How to get there: B. Merwaan and Co. is bang outside the East gate of Grant Road station. There is no way you can miss it as it is right opposite the main exit.