ARINDAM GANGULY, OP
BHUBANESWAR: In the long line of theme-based cafes and eateries in the city, a new entrant is Bike cafes. The Big Bike Hub Café started at Patia area last month is cited as the first bike-themed café in the state. The café is the brainchild of filmmaker Anupam Patnaik, who had made the acclaimed movie Tulasi Apa based on the life of social activist Tulasi Munda. The movie had won the state film award last year. Talking to Orissa POST about his new venture, Anupam who is himself a bike-enthusiast, said: “My friends and I have started a group called Bhubaneswar Super Bikers Club.
There are many biking groups in the city, and they meet regularly and go places. For quite a while, I had wanted to start a common hangout joint for bikers. Once the cafe started, I thought it shouldn’t be limited to one group and should rather be a place for all creative minds.” The theme café is situated inside a super bike showroom in Patia which gives the people a chance to take a look at the smart bikes.
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For bike-lovers, this is a dream place. Various sports bikes can be seen and watched closely in there. The other things that will interest visitors are a pool table, movie screening and karaoke performance on weekends, and super bikes to check around. Apart from these, the cafe also has a books section with coffee table books and magazines and a few board games like Monopoly. For the gamers, there is PS 4 with latest collections of sports games and a large screen for watching major sports matches.
The cafe also organised a short film screening where budding filmmakers were given a chance to show their film. “We give the ‘best film’ award to one of the screened films,” Anupam said.The Biker’s menu at the café has a variety of mouth-watering snacks with burgers, hotdogs and sandwiches spread out, and this is styled as the Biker’s menu. The café also offers stand-up comedy evenings and live music performances for the foodies to soothe their taste buds. “We had brought the comedy group Chain Jokers and will also bring in other comedy groups in future,” he said. He also added that the café is different because it caters to all agegroups and people can come in and enjoy their food while also playing games together, or watching the comedy gigs or musical performances.
The musical nights and other creative projects keep the ambience lively, he said. Manas Parida, a filmmaker whose film Bapa was screened in the café recently, said the café provided a platform to new filmmakers to show their films and it also helps them in making improvements in the film. Aiswarya Behera, a student of KIIT, said such a place is very rare, as it provides food, music, games, and comedy underone roof. “The place is heaven for me.”
In recent times, many theme cafes had sprung up in the city, and one of them is Central Perk 7, a franchise based on the theme of popular sitcom of 90’s, titled Friends. The franchise was taken by four friends to start the café in the city. In the café, the dishes were named after the prime characters of sitcom like Joey Stick, Unagi Omlette, Buffay Drinks etc. In another instance, the restaurant Wrap Up in the Saheed Nagar area had started a theme restaurant based on the popular shows Game of Thrones. The dishes were named based on the character names like Valhar Bolognese Noodles, Fire and Icecream, Red Wedding Cupcakes, Hound’s Fried Chicken, Kings Layer Panini Sandwich, Chicken Little Finger etc.
