Writer's Café: A perfect place to sit with your favourite book and enjoy a cup of hot coffee on a rainy day

Drive down from Chennai's Satyam Cinemas towards Anna Salai, one of the prominent roads in Chennai, and you will find a cozy little place tucked away in the streets near the iconic Thousand Lights. Hidden behind the shed of a tree, a café called Writer's Café is busy brewing some rich coffee and baking delicious cakes to serve guests.

As you enter into the café, a breeze of warmth welcomes you as waiters and servers greet you with their brightest and contagious smiles. Opened in December 2016, Writer's Café has two unique offerings that are attracting youngsters to the joint. First, the café's kitchen is run by burns victim survivors and second, the book café has collaborated with the country's oldest book store, Higginbotham's.

"About six months from the launch, M Mahadevan, renowned Chennai-based restaurateur, and I met to discuss a project he was keen on starting. Focusing on empowering the victims from an NGO called Prevention International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC), the idea of the café was born," Karan Manavalan, Café's unit head and chef tells International Business Times, India.

Putting forward the idea to the survivors at the centre, the duo welcomed interested people to participate. Seven women showed interest, following which they were taken to Winner's Bakery and trained for three months by a professional chef from Switzerland. "Chef Silke Stadler was specially flown down to Chennai to train the women. The chef was here for two months and taught the women bread making and kitchen management," Manavalan shares.

Apart from its unique offerings, the café has other distinctive things that attract the people from all the age groups. Here is what you can look forward to at the café...

Interiors: The café draws inspiration from cafés in Switzerland with the interior décor kept simple. The walls of the café are dominated with book racks on one side and paintings on the other. The café is divided into two floors. The ground floor hosts guests who wish to dine, whereas the first floor has a book shop for people to shop from. All the books are sourced from Higginbotham's. The paintings on the wall are also for sale and the money earned from the sales goes to charity.

Food and costing: Despite being located in the heart of the city (easily accessible from Mount Road, Nungambakkam and Alwarpet), the food served at the café is offered at a nominal cost. The café offers Swiss-inspired European cuisine using ingredients that can be sourced easily. The service charge is also optional.

Activities at the café: While the café doesn't organise any activities on its own, it does play host to book clubs, art shows and any sort of social gathering involving the theme of the café. One among the first activities hosted at Writer's Café included a book-reading session conducted by Broke Bibliophiles (Chennai Chapter) which was organised within two weeks of the cafe's opening.