That Anaheeta Bafna is a hands-on restaurateur is evident from her attention to detail. “I will be with you in a minute, my flowers need tending,” she says to us as she arranges fresh roses at Nutcracker’s recently opened second outpost. Dressed in blue denim and black top, Bafna’s eyes don’t lose focus through the rectangular-rimmed glasses. We go ahead and settle inside the 28-seater restaurant.
One wall is a surreal representation of Bandra, of a bird with a balloon, a man walking a dog and a woman walking to church. We interpret it as eggs, but Bafna later explains the art, admitting she has heard several interpretations of the works.
Nutcracker’s second outlet has plenty of natural light, is fragrant with the same warm and familiar fragrance of butter and coffee, wooden furniture and high chairs with gold-rimmed back rests and yellow lampshades that mark its Kala Ghoda café.
The Bandra café’s menu includes a lot of vegan and gluten free options for the health-conscious suburban crowd. We are thrilled to note that our favourites from the Kala Ghoda outlet, akuri on toast and eggs Kejriwal, are on the menu.
Literally at home in her café, Bafna settles in for a chat about her journey as a charted accountant who clocked 16 hours a day in a corporate world to opening a restaurant. “I always wanted to go to culinary school but back then, it was not seen as a lucrative career. I grew up in a family of CAs and I was quite kicked about joining the corporate world,” she says. It was after working as a CA for seven years that Bafna veered towards another industry, “After my wedding, I took a couple of months off and to help a friend who was supplying accessories to high-end Italian fashion [outlets]. After another seven years here, in December 2013, I started working on the restaurant of my dreams that I had been thinking of since I got out of college,” Bafna shares with a smile.
The fact that her husband, Siddharth, is an investment banker and was already doing work for the restaurant industry helped the duo make a thorough risk analysis. Thus, began a different kind of 16-hour work shift. Remembering the early days at the 26-seater café in Kala Ghoda, which launched in November 2014, Bafna remembers how they ran out of food on the third day by 2 p.m. “We had to serve only coffee and desserts that day until we rushed to the market to buy vegetables and stock our pantry. To add to that, a mistake in my friend’s order left us an extra burger. Since we had not eaten all day, my husband ate it. By evening, a review by a grumpy customer went up on Zomato: ‘No food served to us, while the owner chomped on scrumptious burger.’ Since that day, I decided never to eat at the restaurant unless it was empty,” she laughs.
By now, our first round of order is placed on the table: Emmental truffle scrambled eggs (₹ 425) that come topped with chives, chillies and burnt garlic. I slather it on a toasted bagel and take a big bite. The scrambled eggs pack in a pungent Emmental punch and a fragrant truffle finish. The Turkish eggs (₹ 315) are poached and runny, and topped with garlic yogurt, chilli oil and burnt onions. A garnish of paprika adds a spicy zing to the bite with toasted pita bread. As we move onto the buttermilk apricot pancakes with honeycomb (₹ 275), topping it with salted caramel, Bafna tells us that she loves the instant gratification she gets from customer feedback. “Sunday brunches are my favourite. That’s when so many regulars tell me they love the food. You can see the pleasure on their face! Though I work seven days a week, I love this job,” says Bafna, who lets us in on the reason why the buttermilk pancakes are so delicious. “We changed [the recipe] 40 times to get this perfection.”
Even while our stomachs are full, we cannot resist the urge to try the dark chocolate waffle (₹ 345). The crispy cover gives way to a gooey Belgian chocolate chip waffle. Paired it with melted butter and pancake syrup, and it’s a stairway straight to heaven.
Before leaving, we wonder out aloud. How did a Parsi decide to open a space that doesn’t serve meat? “This is a million dollar question my customers ask me. I gave up meat 25 years ago, and it didn’t fit in my vision to put it on the menu,” states Bafna. We’ll take this hit with another round of Nutcracker’s bestseller seven-layered cookie please.
Nutcracker, Bandra West; 26400432