As soon as the Kookie Jar signage — don’t miss the cute pastry wrapper logo — was mounted at 18 Hindusthan Park (near Fabindia), residents of south Calcutta started knocking on the glass door. “We’ll be opening soon!” said the staff patiently and that soon came sooner, when on September 1 the display counters were stocked with the iconic Lemon Tart to the all-new Strawberry Crumble Pie, and the smell of freshly baked bread wafted in the air.
The latest addition to the bite-and-buy corridor of Hindusthan Park is spread across 900sq ft and is open 10am to 10pm, all days of the week. The first thing you’ll notice is plenty of natural light streaming in from the floor-to-ceiling windows. “We came across this space after a long search in and around the area. We loved that it was a corner building and there was light coming in from two sides,” said Lovey.
Taking things a few notches higher, Lovey and sister Puja visited restaurant designers Costa Group located in Ricco del Golfo di Spezia in the Italian region of Liguria. Costa — which boasts clients like Eataly, Lindt, Lavazza, Magnum and Princi — has previously designed the Kookie Jars in Alipore and City Centre Salt Lake and this time too, designer Nicola Fellerini was brought to town to add his “magic touch”.
“On my first visit here, I did a survey, clicked pictures, took the measurements and back in our factory in Italy, we chatted with Franco Costa, the main creative brain of our company, and started working on the concept,” said Nicola, when t2 met him at the new Kookie Jar store.
The brief? “We wanted to bring an international experience to Calcutta, so we wanted the world trends, whatever’s going around, to be weaved into the design elements here,” said Lovey.
The result? State-of-the-art glass display counters, panels bearing intricate Victorian patterns and foliage-print wallpaper that “brings the outdoors inside”.
From the design board to the menu mood, t2 walks you through the making of Kookie Jar in Hindusthan Park…
MADE IN ITALY...
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What goes into the design is no less tough than getting right the layers of a pastry puff! These behind-the-scene snapshots show a mock display of Kookie Jar in the factory of restaurant designers Costa Group in Italy. “We pre-assemble parts of the shop so that the client can actually see what it will look like. Yes, keeping the look trendy is important but making it a functional space is more important — how much light, the ease of reach and use, and so on,” said Nicola.
Text: Karo Christine Kumar
Pictures: Rashbehari Das
