If you think that it's impossible to get mugged while you drink your coffee - you're mistaken. In fact it's all very simple. Drop in at this cute quaint joint at No.10, Greenways Road, under the music college arch in Raja Annamalaipuram. After you cross the arch, look out for a café on the right side. You really can't miss it. The place looks like one of those joints found alongside the Mediterranean Sea in a French or Italian Rivera (the only difference in this case is that the sea is miles away). The yellow, white and blue awnings outside the building is bound to catch your eye, as also the wavy white stiles that are in front of a tiny green lawn. Walk into the shop and settle down on one of the 'bar' stools, order for a coffee of your choice and ask for a guy called Bhavesh. He'll ensure that you get mugged before you leave the place.

Welcome to 'COFFEE'. One of the popular hangouts in the city, which serves up to 30 varieties of coffee (prices ranging from Rs.10-30) and small bites like sandwiches, chilli cheese toasts and French-fries (prices ranging from Rs.15-30 per plate). The place attracts the collegiate and a small segment of the middle aged crowd. Soft drinks are a strict-no-no here. But the infinite exotic varieties of the brew that are served more than make up for it! You could order a heady Irish, a fruity Hawaiian or even Chennai's very own south Indian filter coffee. A cardboard Rubik's cube placed on each of the half-a-dozen circular glass-topped tables around the café lists all the caffeine concoctions available. You have the Irish, the Turkish and the Thai, apart from the Hawaiian, Italian and the 'vineyard brew' punched with fruity flavours. If you think that's all. Surprise! There's coffee with mint that's called 'misty flavour' with ice cream as lazy floats. You can have a choice of vanilla, chocolate or coffee ice creams served up with your coffee.

If you feel that you're getting inundated by too much of the brown brew, Relax! There's more to the place than just that. The people who conceived it, Nirav (a cinematographer) and Renuka (an interior designer) wanted it to be more than just a hangout that serves exotic coffee. The shop also seeks to be a forum for book presentations, art exhibitions, poetry readings, live-music and even performances like one-act plays. In fact, 'COFFEE' doubles into a part-time art gallery and showcases the work of one artiste every month. If you are not the highbrow arty kind, you could just hang around and browse through the list of 20 top best-selling books, which have been provided courtesy of the Fountainhead bookstore. Alternately, there is the dartboard that could help you to work off any excess energy that you may have. If all is lost and you're the kind who gets bored-by-the-minute, you can take recourse to playing noughts-n-crosses on the printed orange place mats on the tables.

Nirav, a globetrotter of sorts, soaked up all his experiences to come up with the various coffee combos. Renuka, brought in her interior designer's experience to create a very warm and comfortable ambience, where one can hangout with friends, The interiors of the café are painted a warm sunny yellow set off by vibrant blue shades in places with paintings and exhibits hanging on the walls. So the next time you're looking for a hangout, drop into 'COFFEE'. Order your brand of coffee (maybe an Irish winter-or-something?) and munch on the made-to-order eats (maybe baked beans on toast or corn-on-the-cob?) and lean back on the black metal upholstered framework chairs. You could philosophize about life or plan a revolution in the laid back ambience of this cool café. As mentioned earlier, you can still get mugged by Bhavesh. Hand him around Rs.260 and a photograph of yours or your loved one. He'll return, to give you a ceramic coffee mug with your picture on it. Now, wouldn't you call that getting royally mugged?

Rajat C. Kumar

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