Mocha Bar

We started at the 214/10 spot in East of Kailash quite a few years ago. It is a busy corner where the neighborhood really starts to wake up around nine. We open early when the sun is just coming up over the apartment buildings. The air inside usually smells like roasted beans and steam from the milk. We spent a lot of time getting the tables positioned right, but they still wobble sometimes on the old tile floor. People from around the colony stop in before heading to the metro. Some stay for hours with their laptops and empty mugs. It is not a fancy place, just a bar where we make drinks and hope the machines behave today. New Delhi 0065 is a loud area, so we try to keep the music at a level where you can actually hear yourself think. Sometimes the power goes out and we just have to wait it out with the customers in the dark. We have seen kids grow up here, coming in first with their parents and now coming in on their own as adults. The kitchen is small, so it gets really hot in the afternoons. We do not have a big corporate plan or anything like that. We just show up, grind the coffee, and clear the tables when people leave. It is a lot of sweeping and washing mugs, honestly. We like the regulars who know our names. It makes the long shifts feel a bit shorter.