What: Matargashti by Friends Cafe
Where: 175/A, Motilal Nehru Road, behind Deshapriya Park, near Priya cinema
When: 12.30pm to 10.30pm
Pocket pinch: Rs 700-plus for two

We’ve loved them for bringing us a Central Perk-style cafe to Calcutta, and now in place of that, they have brought us a place of madness and masti. 

Matargashti by Friends Cafe is a 85-seater chill zone, divided into two sections, just like its predecessor, but now the walls are full of fun facts and quirky caution signs, as if to warn the guests of the masti zone they’re about to enter. They have replaced the iconic orange couch with a big purple couch, but the fun that stood for F.R.I.E.N.D.S Cafe remains. 

Run by the Bachhawats, mainly by four cousins, Mahima, Aditya, Rishab and Dev, the Deshapriya Park address now has not just changed the decor but also tweaked and expanded the menu. “It was a tough decision for us to take, because F.R.I.E.N.D.S Cafe was so close to our hearts. So far we’ve got good feedback from guests who had visited earlier as well, and not a single negative review!” said 25-year-old Aditya.

And where are all the carefully created custom-made F.R.I.E.N.D.S props that adorned the cafe? “They are safely in our rooms, like I have Pat and Mahima has the eyehole frame. We are huge fans of the show and couldn’t part with them,” smiled Aditya. t2 revisited the cafe to indulge in some harmless matargashti i.e. to while away time…

Six reasons (for the six characters, duh) why the F.R.I.E.N.D.S-themed cafe didn’t work, say the owners

♦ The shelf life of a theme restaurant is very low. The first six months will be raging and after that, the craze will eventually die down. 
♦ It was getting difficult to keep reinventing, because the number of things that can be changed is limited when you have ♦ The demand for north Indian food was very high, especially because of the area we are located in. That would be a big no-no with the theme. In our new menu we have included a large collection of Indian dishes. But don’t fret, we conducted a survey on Facebook asking what people liked the best and kept those dishes on the existing menu, with minor tweaking.
♦ A theme cafe also restricts the audience. Your friend who has never watched the TV series would opt for another restaurant or cafe instead of coming here, if given a chance. So we felt we were losing out on a large percentage of people.
♦ We had many repeat customers in the beginning but after a while even the most hardcore F.R.I.E.N.D.S fan starts to get bored. They’ve already sat at the couch and taken pictures with Pat, the dog and the purple door with the frame. 
♦ A non-theme cafe will give us the chance to reinvent ourselves and keep bringing something new to the table, through decor, activities or food.

Text: Deborima Ganguly
Pictures: B. Halder