More coffee flavours: Panjab University eatery to come back with new menu

Famous among the Panjab University (PU) residents for its south Indian cuisine, the South India Coffee House is all set to start resume operations with a new menu.

The South India Coffee House will now become a multi-cuisine restaurant as the new menu will feature at least 20 new food items in addition to the south Indian food items that were served at the iconic coffee house in the past.

The decision on the terms and conditions for renting out the South India Coffee House was taken during a meeting on Thursday.

A committee member said, “During the meet, the terms and conditions for renting out the India Coffee house was finalised so that its service can be resumed as soon as possible.”

The coffee house, which was opened in 1975, had announced its closure in June due to a decrease in footfall of that resulted in losses.

The number of employees too had gone down from six to three.

The new food items included in the menu include poha, mix chat, pudi bhaji, dhokla, egg biryani, veg biryani, gol gappay and masala corn.

It has been decided that an auction will be held for the coffee house and the base amount of ₹50,000 per month has been set.

“An auction for renting out the South India Coffee House of PU will be held and after that an amount of ₹1 lakh will be paid as security by the tenant,” said the committee member.

The cafeteria served as a prominent space for the students and academicians to eat, socialise and discuss for several years. As its closure came around the students’ elections, not much protests came
about.

After its closure, the Panjab University administration had asked the University Institute of Hotel and Tourism management (UIHTM) to run a cafeteria or bakery in the space emptied by the coffee house, but they declined the offer resulting in a longer closure of the coffee house.

Vice-chancellor professor Raj Kumar will take the final call
on the decisions taken by the committee and after that
an advertisement will be given in newspapers for the auction
of the South India Coffee house.

Panjab University, dean students welfare (DSW) professor Emanual Nahar, said, “The decisions were taken keeping in view the interests of the students of the varsity. The committee has finalised everything and in coming days an advertisement will be given in newspapers to invite the auction for the coffee house after the V-C’s nod.”