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Where there is rum, there is fun! Staying true to this adage is Mumbai’s Le Café, which is back with its Old Monk festival. 

In its sixth edition at the European-style café based in Chembur, the festival attracts all—from baby boomers to Gen Z. With teenager-like zest, a group of people sitting behind me filled the whole place with laughter and chatter. This group was a hoot; they got excited about a dish and clicked lots of pictures for the “Gram”. Meanwhile, millennials and Gen Z seemed to have quieter conversations, with many busy on their phones.  

“This is what you will see whenever you come. We brought the first European-style café in Chembur and probably in Mumbai. So older people are usually those who have been visiting us for the last 15-16 years,” Ashesh L Sajnani, Managing Director at Hotel Jewel of Chembur, told YS Life in an interaction. “The younger folks find us through social media,” he adds. 

About 16 years ago, Le Café started with four tables in Chembur, a suburban area in Mumbai—also home to many “legacy” families from Indian cinema. The continental-inspired café became home to the Kapoors (actor Ranbir Kapoor’s family and actress Sonam Kapoor’s family) and Takias, among others, claims Ashesh.  

“These film families and our regulars have been visiting us since we opened. Many have now gotten older,” he says. 

Considering its location, Le Café sees a lot of footfall from Navi Mumbai and Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), people who might not find a restaurant in the busy business and commercial area.  

However, Ashesh feels retaining a younger crowd is difficult for any food business today, making it tough for eateries to generate repeat customers from GenZ and Millennials. 

“When we opened, there was only one café probably offering a European theme and feel. But today, there are so many, and everyone is doing many interesting things to attract visitors,” he says. 

To attract more GenZ customers—always on the lookout for new experiences—Le Café started hosting food festivals. Today, the café hosts a themed festival almost every alternate month, where it offers a new food and drinks menu along with its regular menu. 

Its Old Monk Festival, started in 2018, is one of Le Café’s oldest festivals. It tries to blend nostalgia with a few shades of novelty through food. The café serves four cocktails, four appetisers, mains (pizza and pasta), and a dessert. 

The festival will continue till February 20. As per Ashesh, the approximate cost for two people is between Rs 800-1,200.

Every course has the legendary Old Monk rum as one of its ingredients. Its cocktails feature the rum in all its glory, while it pours over or inculcates the run with the sauce in pizza and pasta, respectively. 

I tried their top-selling cocktail, the Silent Monk, served in a 180 ml Old Monk bottle with a caramelised orange candy. 

The first whiff filled my senses with the distinct sweet and warm smell of Old Monk. The first sip hit me with lemony notes, followed by a slightly sweet taste that lingered for a bit. The Old Monk rum provided the distinct aftertaste. 

“Old Monk is such a recognisable rum brand in India. Most of us—be it of any generation—drink this as our first brand. Even a college student today would be buying Old Monk and so would a 50-year-old,” says Ashesh. 

It took Le Café about a month to design a menu featuring the drink in every dish. 

“The process was faster because we somehow were so excited about using Old Monk; we were trying and testing very quickly,” Ashesh shares. 

The use of Old Monk rum in the cafe’s dishes is not extremely complicated. For instance, as I tried the Arborio Arancini Rumbol—an appetiser on the festival menu—I could taste the rum in the spicy sauce under the cheese ball.

With an extremely neat and precise presentation, covered in a special batter, the cheese balls were nice and crispy and had a rich cheese-filled centre. The sauce that contained the rum initially tasted spicy and tangy but ended on a slightly bitter note.

Next, I ordered a thin-crust chicken pizza, which the menu said had chicken pieces, soaked in rum and made in a wood-fired oven. The other toppings include bell peppers. 

The server brought the pizza to the table, along with a shot of Old Monk, which he lit, and poured over the pizza. It was nothing less than a spectacle.

I loved the thin and crispy crust but the dish was a bit underwhelming, maybe because the “wow” factor—the serving of the dish—raised my expectations. 

Le Café is planning to change its entire menu for the next edition. While the format would be the same, rum-infused food, the dishes would be completely different. 

“Normally, we do make some tweaks. But it would be changing the pasta from Tagliatelle to Pappardelle. Now, we are going to change everything,” says Ashesh. 

The festival, which helps Le Café attract and convert at least 50% new customer base, has also been successful in getting more younger customers. Ashesh hopes the newer version of the festival will do the same.