Bismilla Coffee Works

If you go down Arcot Road toward the Kodambakkam Bridge, you’ll find us at number 88. Bismilla Coffee Works has been a fixture here for a long time. The shop is right where the traffic starts to bunch up near the bridge. It’s noisy outside with the buses and bikes, but inside it smells like roasted coffee all day long. We have the grinders going pretty much from the moment we open the shutters. It’s a small operation, mostly just a couple of us handling the machines and the customers who walk in from the street. The floor gets a bit covered in coffee dust by noon, no matter how much we sweep it. We don't have a website or any of that stuff; we just do the work. People from around Kodambakkam know the spot. They come in for their regular bags, and we have a quick chat while the machine runs. Sometimes the power goes out, and we just have to wait it out, sitting on the stools out front. The building is old, and the stairs are a bit narrow, but it works for us. We've seen a lot of shops come and go on this stretch of Arcot Road, but we are still here doing the same thing. It’s just a simple coffee business, nothing more than that. We keep the beans moving and the grinders sharp. Every bag we pack is done by hand, and that is just how we like it.