Waking up to the smell of fresh coffee with Suprabhatam hymns echoing MS Subalakshmi's voice are quite common in most Tamil brahmin households. I don't know if I wake up for the coffee, or I have my coffee because I am awake.
Filter Coffee or Kaapi is an integral part of South Indian culture, and this is probably one of the reasons for the all-so-pervasive coffee hotels in Chennai and across South India that offer pure filter coffee along with the 'tiffin'.
One such hotel that began its journey in 1950 is the New Woodlands Hotel located in the heart of Chennai. These small cafes existed even before the pub culture invaded the Indian coffee drinker's world.
Unlike other metros and large cities where the Baristas, Cafe Coffee Days and Cafe Mochas are expressing their outlandishness in serving a simple coffee, Chennai is not yet urbanised enough to lose the flavour of the real filter coffee. Loyalists still throng to New Woodlands for a sip of politics, cricket with a dash of Carnatic music, and of course, filter coffee.
The hotel traces its history back to 1935 when Dr Krishna Rao started it on some leased land. However, seeing the profit he was making, the landowner forced him to vacate the land. Rao then went ahead and set up the hotel at another location by the name New Woodlands while old hotel came to be predictably known as Old Woodlands.
The charm of this pure vegetarian hotel run by an orthodox family is its authentic cooking of both tuvar dal and rice (both being bases for most dishes) in wood fire.
The wood-fire stove was laid by the founder and has been in existence for years with minor alterations (not modifications), even while the hotel underwent major renovations.
In addition to the complete south Indian fare, the hotel has also added north Indian and continental dishes in its offering. A typical meal or a thali for four never costs more than Rs 300 at this very modest hotel.
