It was around 1598 that the first reference to coffee was made in England. The ‘coffa’ or ‘cova’ a peculiar drink found in turkey and their coffee house culture interested the British travellers. A series of references have been made to the drink throughout the 17th century some of which are seen in Captain John Smith's book of Travels and Adventure, published in 1603 where he says, "Their best drink is coffa of a graine they call coava." and in Francis Bacon’s Historia Vitae et Mortis (1623), he says: "The Turkes use a kind of herb which they call caphe".
It was in 1650 that the first coffee house was established in England by a Jew named Jacob and soon after followed the Oxford Coffee House in 1655 when a society of young students encouraged one Arthur Tillyard an ‘apothecary and royalist,’ to sell coffee publicly in his house. This Oxford Coffee Club was the start of the Royal Society.
The coffee houses were a place for student to discuss educational and political reforms, read newspapers and even gossip. Today the entire concept of coffee houses has taken a new form. From the architecture to the menu, a lot has changed. There is one place though that has managed to keep that culture alive in its native form. It stands in one of the busiest parts of Bangalore, but once you walk in, time seems to take a back seat. It’s quite surprising that while there are people rushing in and out of Koshys, once you get your seat there is no hurry to order and finish your meal; that is probably why people are drawn to it.
On asking Mr. Prem koshy as to what is the ‘magic’ that Koshys seems to create; he replied smiling that koshys was open to everyone irrespective of where they came from or what they did.
At a time when the ‘whites’ refused to sit in the same room as the ‘blacks’ Koshys was a refreshing change. He believed that the entire culture that Koshys has seemed to evolve is that of matter and antimatter. While there is a culture created, one can’t define it. Everyone is free to do as he pleases with the fundamental rule of giving out more than what you take in.
At a time when the ‘whites’ refused to sit in the same room as the ‘blacks’ Koshys was a refreshing change. He believed that the entire culture that Koshys has seemed to evolve is that of matter and antimatter. While there is a culture created, one can’t define it. Everyone is free to do as he pleases with the fundamental rule of giving out more than what you take in.
The smoking section of Koshys resembles the early London coffee houses in a lot of ways. For one the coffee houses were the haunt of the English political parties: the Tories and the Whigs. Koshys on the other hand not only catered for the Maharaja of Mysore but was frequented by P.Chidambaram, Jawaharlal Nehru, S.Nijalingappa and even former U.S Ambassador Chester Bowels.
Sir Richard Steele’s ‘Tatler’ had a section titled ‘Will’s Coffee House’ and Alexander pope’s ‘Rape of the Lock’ was inspired by gossip that he heard at Will’s Coffee House. ‘The Table by the Window’ a book of photographs was dedicated to Koshys and a regular was so inspired that he even wrote a sonnet in its honour. Where Will’s Coffee House would distribute pamphlets and even a copy of the London gazette, Koshys, on their golden jubilee, distributed a pamphlet of their journey from 1940 to 1990
The influential John Dryden is known to have one particular seat that he would sit on almost every day in Will’s Coffee House. Surprisingly, we met a lady who was waiting for almost thirty minutes for her seat by the window. While working on her book she loved the view and I quote, “In the quiet city of Bangalore, Koshys really stands out. There is so much of life in it.” Koshys has recently started conducting talks and debates in the newly opened ‘Chill Out’ the topics varying from politics to forms of dance to varieties of food.
Koshys has inspired generations of journalists, playwrights, poets and authors and continues to do so even today. The food has been said to have been exactly like it was when it started out in 1940 and that’s what the striking feature of the place is. So as the sonnet goes,
‘When your senses urge for a cup of tea,
Turn around the corner and you’ll find koshys’
