End of our outdoor cafes?

End of our outdoor cafes?
Coffee addicts suffer withdrawals as their fave hangouts are shut down
The Times of India

IT’S the end of outdoor cafes in Bangalore! This may well be the reality if the “newfound” BMP bylaws are not rolled back. For this week coffee addicts watched the law enforcers shutting down several outdoor cafes with their kiosks which have become symbols of the city’s signature coffee culture.

Bangaloreans deprived of their daily perk at their favourite hangout are beginning to show withdrawal symptoms. “It’s like you’ve lost a limb,” says ad person Andrea B. “Caffeine’s my crutch. I can’t get through the morning without it. Just knowing that the coffee shop was right there, next to your office made getting to work a pleasure,” she says.

“There just aren’t enough coffee shops to go around. The ones that remain open are so packed on weekdays, I dread to think of weekends. Maybe I’ll just shift to drinking beer,” says model K Adnan.

There are other fallouts, too. “These coffee shops fostered a healthy hanging out culture. It attracted a lot of beautiful people. I’ll miss the handsome hunks I used to have for eye candy along with my cuppa. I hope they reopen soon,” says Andrea.

“The outdoor cafes with their kiosks gave Bangalore an international feel. In many ways, these cafes represented the arrival of the city as one to reckon with globally. Neither the city nor the coffee will ever be the same again,” says coffee lover B Harish.

The coffee shop industry is naturally dismayed. “The BMP didn’t give us any time to even gather our defences. They slapped us with a notice and asked us to down shutters immediately. We hold valid licences till 2007. They told us that it was cancelled. Apparently they’ve discovered a ‘new’ law that allows for a setback area for every building, in which one may not carry out any commercial activity through temporary structures. Permanent structures are okay, but not temporary. This is very foxing,” says one spokesperson.

The CEO of one of the coffee shop chains, who did not wish to be named, threw up his hands. “I don’t know why this is happening. Some of the largest outlets in the country are in Bangalore and they’ve been shut down. It’s a big loss of business. When we asked the authorities for solutions, they asked us to shift our kiosks inside somewhere. We’re in the process of going through the site plans with our landlords to see if there’s a way out, but if they insist on the setback area bylaw, I’m afraid, this may well be the end of outdoor cafes in Bangalore,” he says.