Abcos Food Plaza completes 25 years this month, but manager Samiran Mitra says it feels like they started just yesterday.

“There were so few restaurantsin Salt Lake back then — a Charnock City here, an Aqua Java there… But while many old names have now downed shutters, we try to keep reinventing,” he recalled at a celebration dinner for loyal guests on Monday.

“Abcos must have been the second bar in our area after Mishra’s (in Sector II), and I’ve been coming here since the day it got its bar licence,”smiled Raj Mohan Maheshwari, a guest from HA Block who had come with one arm fractured and in a sling,and the other carrying a bouquet for the restaurant. “I come here twice a week with a friend-circle of seven to10. The care and service we get here is better than any club.”Over the years, the venue has hosted celebrities like singers Shreya Ghoshal and Nachiketa, actors Raima Senand Nandita Das, and archers Deepika Kumari, and siblings Dola and Rahul Banerjee.“In 2001, we attracted mostly family crowds from Salt Lake, but with time, people started coming from faroff localities too. Post 2015, IT crowdsstarted coming,” recalls Mitra. And then came the lockdown — the toughest time for the entire industry.“Our customers supported us even then.

One of them, a Lake Town resident, ordered a full-course meal on his birthday for seven of his friends, living as far away as Barasat, and our staff went around delivering the food.”Sk. Shahnawaz, the Indian chef here since inception, says their signature dishes have remained unchanged. “Especially the Elaichi Rann, that is a sumptuous platter ofbiriyani rice, vegetables, gravy, and slow-cooked mutton,” he said.Abcos is doling out special offers too, till their anniversary, onJune 23.