Over a cup of coffee

   Customers hang out at this place for hours with a cup of coffee in hand as they chat with friends and colleagues.

   As the name suggests, the outlet is known for its aromatic coffee, the taste of which has remained unchanged over the decades.

   Customers, who have been a regular at the eatery, say the taste and aroma of the coffee is the same as the one they had savoured 30 years ago.

“Both the quality and quantity have remained the same. All the other eateries generally introduce new sets of glasses for coffee, which are smaller in size, as they increase the prices. But here you see the same size and superior quality. If a person tastes the dishes once, he or she cannot refrain from having them again,” says Dwarakanath, a regular customer of the outlet who has now become a friend of Nagaraja Dhanya, the owner of the corner.

Nagaraja Dhanya started this place in 1975 as a small outlet selling only coffee and tea.
   But soon, he was able to convert it into a full-fledged eating place thanks to the popularity he gained for his items.
   “We open at 5.30 in the morning. The walkers going to Lal Bagh, paper boys and IT people who are returning from night shifts stop here for coffee and idli. There are
people who visit us eight to ten times a day to simply savour a cup of coffee,” says Nagaraja Dhanya.

What makes their coffee so special?
   “We use Bayar’s coffee. We never compromise on the quality of coffee powder and we use a different method to simmer the milk.

If the milk is heated for long, the taste of it will get spoilt. Hence, the perfect blending of milk and powder is crucial. All items in our eatery are famous as our focus is to satisfy the customer with taste and quality so that they frequent us again and again,” says Nagaraja.

True to his words, the customers appreciate idli-sambar, rice bath, vada, puri and masala dosa.

   The badam milk and kashayas also have takers. During lunch time, many
people turn up to have the anna-sambar, which comes with rice, sambar, rasam and papad.

“Till today, Nagaraja can be seen supervising the kitchenat five in the morning. He
is a role model for everyone in the food industry who want to scale greater heights in the field,” avers Dwarakanath, finishing his coffee.