Explorer of Experiences

Size Matters It is news when in a real estate-crunched city like Pune you have a restaurant that’s bagged a space that spans 15,000 sq ft. It is rare still to walk into a restaurant that is that big; a restaurant with an indoor section, a huge outdoor dining area and even an amphitheatre. Without an intention to compare, when you walk in, Classic Rock feels like High Spirits v 2.0, mature and mammoth-sized. Its sprawling premises promises to easily harbor about 1500 revelers. And where they score over lots of restaurants is their parking lot that can accommodate almost 200 vehicles. Obviously, their manning is huge with 80 people on the payroll. Cocktails & Coffee At Classic Rock, they take both their coffee and cocktails very seriously. Let’s talk Arabica first. They source their coffee beans from Kerala and even have a glistening silver roasting machine on site. Beans are roasted and grinded, so you’re guaranteed a freshly brewed Cappuccino (Rs 140). If you’re int...

I wish people read what they write. Proof reading is underrated and its importance is understated. With everyone increasingly hinging on social media to communicate with one another, the way we write has significantly changed. Our writing has become lazy and we could not care much about grammar. Sometimes even though we know we've made a spelling mistake, we don't care much to amend it. Oh, you'll get what I mean anyway is what we'd think to ourselves. Some really annoying mistakes people make in written communication are: 1. Using 'ur' instead of your  or you're. Come on, don't be lazy...write the entire word! And hey, there's an actually spelling created to say you so please don't write u. 2. Not knowing when to use its and it's. This is a very common mistake that sometimes people don't even realize they have made. It takes a proof reading or two before you realize and go oops. 

Last weekend, I got a unique opportunity to visit Gowardhan Cheese Factory in Manchar district, a good two hour drive from Pune city. The owning home-grown company Parag Milk Foods brand portfolio includes Gowardhan and GO boasting of a range of dairy products that have been retailed across Mumbai and Pune over the last decade. I first started using their yoghurt when the local kirana store ran out of my usual preference of Amul , Danone and Britannia . One spoon of it and I instantly found it so fresh, light and 'unprocessed'. I have always loved cheese but now I even prefer it over chocolate. So when I was scheduled to visit the GO factory, it bore semblance to winning the golden ticket and entering glistening gates to its factory much like the popular Roald Dahl 's  Charlie . Except that it was not all that dramatic! 

Simple flavours and honest food define this new feather in Koregaon Park’s edible hat. Ranbir Batra, a fourth generation restaurateur sets foot into Pune’s food firmament with his new 50 seater American-style bistro Frisco. He’s let his chef Sourabh Kulkarni take the reigns and the menu is a labour of his love for simple fresh flavours and thorough research – he knows what the city’s diners aren’t getting to eat at existing restaurants and aims to fill in the void with his offerings. Pune born and bred, Kulkarni has previously worked in hotels going from being primarily a pastry chef to being a commis, a garde manger, holding rank in every possible wing in the kitchen.