Shimla’s iconic Indian Coffee House on Mall Road, which has been a favourite hangout spot for politicians and other celebrities in the past is staring at a bleak future with customer numbers dropping due to the pandemic. Opened in 1962 five years after the first outlet of the Indian Coffee House franchise opened its doors in New Delhi on October 27, 1957, the Shimla cafe has also hosted famous leaders such as the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, former deputy PM Lal Krishna Advani and former Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself visited the cafe in 2017. But a continuous fall in the number of patrons have increased losses for the outlet and owners say they have not been able to even pay salaries to their employees for about 10 months.
The senior manager of Indian Coffee House, Atma Ram Sharma told news agency ANI, said: “We run on a no-profit- no-loss basis. We hardly have funds. We’ve not paid our workers for the last 1 year. Some people have come here to support us as we said that it may be closed soon."
Himachal Pradesh | Shimla's Indian Coffee House facing financial crisis due to #COVID19We've not paid our workers for the last 1 year. Some people have come here to support us as we said that it may be closed soon: Atma Ram Sharma, Senior Manager, Indian Coffee House Shimla pic.twitter.com/FIzkayf1zs
— ANI (@ANI) June 1, 2021
According to reports, Sharma also said the outlet earned around Rs 60,000 daily before the pandemic but now they barely earn Rs 4,000 because they are allowed to stay open for just 3 hours.
Last year, The outlet had been in the news after one of its employees skipped COVID-19 testing and quarantine after returning from Delhi in an unauthorised manner. The employee arrived here from Delhi, a COVID-19 red zone, on Saturday and reached the coffee house’s kitchen, a Shimla district official said.
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