This Calcutta summer is gonna be a lot more bearable because... a bit of Dear Darj has come to town! You will have to skip the Mall, the Chowrasta and the misty roads, but you sure can imagine yourself at Keventers, wolfing down their meat platter with a cup of Darjeeling tea from Nathmulls, off Golpark.

Walk into The Whistling Kettle, a pretty cafe-cum-store set up by Sailesh Sarda (the fourth-generation owner of Nathmulls on Darjeeling’s Chowrasta), where the menu boasts of the English breakfast platter sourced directly from Keventers, Darjeeling.

“Sailesh is a very good friend of mine and when he approached me to supply our famous range of meat platters to his cafe in Calcutta, I readily agreed,” Rahul Jha, the third-generation proprietor of Keventers, told t2 over phone from Darjeeling.

There’s all-day breakfast along with an Italian menu with a selection of pizzas and pastas at the 30-seater, in the lane running alongside Mouchak, off Golpark. The sip list features a variety of black, white, green and herbal teas along with milk shakes and coffee.

At the store, pick up some Nathmulls tea sourced from “100 per cent organic tea plantations in Darjeeling”, as well as tea accessories ranging from elaborate tea sets to self-brewing cups and mugs.

“Many of our customers are from Calcutta who regularly place orders online and often crib that we don’t have any outlet in the plains. So we created The Whistling Kettle, a tea boutique-cum-cafe where you can relive your Darjeeling experience and make plans for the next visit to the hills,” said Sailesh.

The Whistling Kettle

Where: 23/3 Gariahat Road, near Mouchak, Golpark
Open: 9am-10pm (Monday-Friday) and 8am-10pm (Saturday-Sunday)
Meal for two: Rs 600 (only cash accepted currently)

Text: Sibendu Das
Pictures: Rashbehari Das