The Park Street fine-dining rendezvous is being readied to open its doors later this month. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Mediterranean magic with Minestrone Soup and Turkish Chicken, cultural cocktails featuring martini lunches and Margarita dinners, a Sunday champagne brunch, four-to-seven teatime tattle with book launches and unhurried adda?

Cinnamon Restaurant & Lounge, set to sprinkle fresh spice on Park Street?s motley menu of new-age eateries soon, promises to offer a distinctive dining experience to the Calcutta connoisseur, and much more.

The 130-cover fine-dining rendezvous specialising in Mediterranean cuisine could, indeed, be the tip of a Scandinavian iceberg, and Sweden?s ?Hotel King? NRI Bicky Chakraborty?s tool to taste waters in the city.

?He has thrown us a challenge to stand on our own feet with Cinnamon, before he feels comfortable enough to wade in with his considerable arsenal,? says owner Asish Chakraborty, speaking of his elder brother, who pilots the Rs 700-crore Elite Group of Hotels in Sweden. The group has bid for Great Eastern Hotel and is scouting for other heritage properties.

That Cinnamon is an appetiser before an Elite main course, is clear, and the management of the eatery, set to open its doors later this month just down the road to recent entrants Sourav?s and Marco Polo in China, is gearing up in earnest.

?We will make a difference with our efficient and time-bound service ? the drink in three minutes, appetiser in 14 and main course in 20 ? our food quality and through constant innovations,? promises general manager Himanshu Bhagat.

Executive chef Tanmoy Majumdar, culled from Hyatt, hopes to tickle taste buds with his array of Mediterranean delights, like Cinnamon Fish (bekti poached with onions, asparagus and chilli tomatoes and flavoured with cinnamon) besides pastas, risotto and kebabs, and Indian fare.

Mix mogul Irfan, who will be behind the bar, is keen to revive ?forgotten old cocktails like Manhattan? (a bourbon whisky drink), besides red wine and white wine coolers. ?We would like to bring back good cultural cocktail drinking like we see in the movies and whitewash the phobia of getting drunk,? he quips.

Salmon from Norway won?t be the sole Scandinavian import. Swedish chefs from the Elite chain will train Cinnamon staff periodically, not just in culinary finesse, but also in European food safety norms, according to Asish Chakraborty, also executive director of Westbank Hospital.

A teatime window will open from four to seven, offering smart snacks to banish the post-luncheon lull. ?We will slot events like book releases, debates and other interactive forums to create a lively ambience, along with a range of coffees and smoothies,? declares Bhagat, also planning live music, including dedicated jazz evenings.

?We will be the first restaurant in Calcutta to use Lutrons, the world's leading dimming system from the US,? says Bhagat.