Women entrepreneurs storm into male bastion with theme cafes

KOLKATA: Women entrepreneurs of Kolkata are storming the male bastion of caf business and setting up new-age theme-based outlets offering a wide array of choices to customers.

Leading the tribe is actor-turned-entrepreneur Swaralipi Chatterjee, who runs the popular caf 'Abar Baithak' in the Jodhpur Park area of Kolkata. It is the city's first caf themed on Feluda, the immortal detective character of Satyajit Ray.

"After our initial startup caf in Rabindra Sarobar area failed to click in 2010 due to faulty planning, we set up this caf a few years later but I have to now run the show alone as I am divorced with my husband," Chatterjee, who was a popular face in Bengali soaps till 2014, said.

Chatterjee said that she and her former husband had started the caf for their passion for 'adda', good food and ambience. He was a good cook, which contributed to their decision to start the venture. Also, she was not getting "meaningful roles" on the silver screen."However, after we got divorced, it became my responsibility to run the household, raise our daughter as a single mother and also keep my venture afloat," she said.

Chatterjee claimed that hers was the first theme-based caf in the eastern metropolis.

"We had to temporarily shut down the caf during the 2020 lockdown, but reopened it after the restrictions were lifted. Slowly, in the last few months, people are thronging the caf again," she said.Amrita Annie, the owner of 'Pancham er Adday', a popular hangout in Hindustan Park area themed on R D Burman's works, said that she had always dreamt of a caf themed on the music of 1970s and 80s, and materialised it in August 2019.Annie said that she had to sell all her jewellery to restart the caf after the lockdown.