Coffee was the drink of the day at Little India Cafe in London’s Chinatown, and its cafe’s location on 17/18 Marylebone St (the back street of West End) and its “sateen” interior – as in tea – ensured it occupied a niche in the city’s crowded espresso scene.
So when little India Cafe shut in April, and Little India Bar went quiet as well a few months earlier, there were rumours that Mumbai’s bakery café brigade were invading London’s streets, with a spate of Gurukul-inspired locations springing up between Canary Wharf and St Mary’s Square.
But these were only preliminaries to Little India Cafe’s permanent shutdown on Thursday. “We have had a positive experience since its opening and think there are better ways to serve coffee than selling it at an all-day café,” explained a spokesperson. “The landlord is now in advanced talks with a company for a development of this premises.”