The wife and I first went to Dolly’s Tea House at Dakhinapan Calcutta on a wet rainy afternoon in 2002 I think. This was our second trip to Cal. We had gone to Dakhinapan to check out the handicraft shops. After being hastened out from a number of shops where the attendants did not appreciate being ‘disturbed’, we stepped into Dolly’s tea house.
We immediately fell in love with the quaint shop which was so refreshingly different from the coffee shop chains which had begun to come up. I had heard of it before but never been there. The wet weather, wooden caskets & chairs, paper lamps, the cosy unstructured seating arrangements, the lady with the big bindi & deep voice cast a spell on us and we almost felt like Hansel & Gretel in front of the chocolate house
It’s run by this lady (presumably Mrs Dolly) who had set it up probably a decade before the Baristas and Coffee Days of the world. She has her busy bunch of Bengali ladies assisting her in the shop. The interiors of the shop is very quaintly done and has a distinct personality. A nice range of teas. However we love the range of flavoured ice teas (orange, black currant, apple, etc) the most. They have a very distinctive tea like taste quite different from the synthetic, syrupy ice teas served in most shops…and yet so reasonable (30 bucks for a ‘large glass’. Their homely sandwiches are quite nice too
The wife is quite fond of the place and I make it a point of taking her to Dollys every time to go to Calcutta. The high point of this time’s visit was our gathering to courage to ask ‘Dolly’ to get photographed with the wife
We immediately fell in love with the quaint shop which was so refreshingly different from the coffee shop chains which had begun to come up. I had heard of it before but never been there. The wet weather, wooden caskets & chairs, paper lamps, the cosy unstructured seating arrangements, the lady with the big bindi & deep voice cast a spell on us and we almost felt like Hansel & Gretel in front of the chocolate house
It’s run by this lady (presumably Mrs Dolly) who had set it up probably a decade before the Baristas and Coffee Days of the world. She has her busy bunch of Bengali ladies assisting her in the shop. The interiors of the shop is very quaintly done and has a distinct personality. A nice range of teas. However we love the range of flavoured ice teas (orange, black currant, apple, etc) the most. They have a very distinctive tea like taste quite different from the synthetic, syrupy ice teas served in most shops…and yet so reasonable (30 bucks for a ‘large glass’. Their homely sandwiches are quite nice too
The wife is quite fond of the place and I make it a point of taking her to Dollys every time to go to Calcutta. The high point of this time’s visit was our gathering to courage to ask ‘Dolly’ to get photographed with the wife
