How a pair of Kannada words, everyday South Indian food and a neighbourhood in north Bengaluru are coming together as Annara.
Annara brings two Kannada words together. Side by side, they describe the café we are building: the food comes first and is cooked with care, and everything around it, from the light and the music to the art on the walls and the conversation at the next table, is there to nourish you a little too.
That is the idea Annara is named for, and the feeling we want every visit to carry home.
Familiar flavours, made with care, in a room that feels of today.
Our roots are in the everyday food of Karnataka: soft idli and crisp vada, khara bath and kesari bath side by side on one plate, bisi bele bath finished with a spoon of ghee, ragi in its many forms, and filter coffee poured between tumbler and davara until it froths. Food that feels like home because, for so many people, it is.
Our way of seeing is Bengaluru’s. This is a city that has always made room for the new beside the familiar: old coffee houses and busy darshinis, quiet lanes and long conversations, many languages at a single table. Annara takes that spirit to heart.
Contemporary, for us, does not mean reinventing what already works. It means warm light, thoughtful design and an unhurried pace, built around food that already feels like home.
Everything at Annara starts at the table. Design, art, music and community are there to enrich it, so an everyday visit to a neighbourhood café can become one you remember.
Natural, tactile materials and warm light, so the room feels unhurried and the food stays at the centre.
Work by local artists that changes from time to time.
Small performances, in a room quiet enough to really listen.
Readers, makers and neighbours, and the conversations that start when they share a table.
Annara’s home is Vidyaranyapura, in north Bengaluru. Before it is anything else, it is meant to be the local café: close by, easy to walk into, and glad to see you again.
Neighbours and regulars, families, students, readers and makers: we are making it for all of them, and for anyone who comes for a good filter coffee.
However you arrive, on your own, as a pair or as the whole family, the welcome should feel the same.
Founded by Mamatha Byalal Chindappa, Annara brings together thoughtful design, vegetarian South Indian food and a belief in everyday connection.
Mamatha Byalal ChindappaFounder, Annara Café
An Annara Café brand under Byalal Group Private Limited.
The breakfast you grew up with, the coffee house you still miss, the plate you would cross the city for. Tell us about it, or simply say hello.
