Visiting your neighbourhood Udipi restaurant for piping hot idlis or a crisp rava dosa is passé. It’s at Shivsagar restaurant, Churchgate at least.
Drinking wine has filtered down to Udipis and Gujarati thalis
Visiting your neighbourhood Udipi restaurant for piping hot idlis or a crisp rava dosa is passé. It’s at Shivsagar restaurant, Churchgate at least. There you can enjoy the choicest wines with your quick lunch or dinner.
It might sound unbelievable but isn’t when you consider that Shivsagar has been stocking an entire range of Chateau Indage wines since December 2005. They’re also pretty happy about the fact that the dosa-wine combination is as hot as their steaming idlis among their patrons.
Says Shekhar Pujari, owner Shivsagar, “People were rather surprised initially. The demand has increased gradually. Now we have not just youngsters and foreigners but entire families savouring wine with meals.”
It’s also a clear indication that wine-drinking is no longer restricted to the elite class. Maintains Pujari, “In the last few years there has been tremendous awareness generated about wine. There are people who had never even touched it, now taking a fancy to it.” Vikrant Choughule, director, Chateau Indage, says, “Wine being an elitist drink is a myth and we are trying to banish it. Wine is for everyone. It is the healthiest form of alcohol.”
He adds, “Who says you can’t have wine with dosa? Whatever knowledge we have about wine drinking is based on French guidelines. There is no rule that says that you should have wine with just pasta.”
At Woodside Inn you can enjoy a wine and South Indian food combo. At Chetana, Kala Ghoda, wine is served with Gujarati and Rajasthani thalis. At Vitthal’s you can dig into spicy bhelpuri and ragda pattice with wine. Choughule however has more on his mind, “I think our wines can be had with Jafferbhai’s biryani too.”
Dare we say cheers?
r_faheem@dnaindia.net
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