The Leopold Cafe and Bar is a restaurant and bar
/ref> on Colaba Causeway, in

Colaba Colaba (; or ISO 15919, ISO: Kolābā) is a part of the city of Mumbai, India. It is one of the four peninsulas of Mumbai while the other three are Worli, Bandra and Malabar Hill. During the Portuguese rule in the 16th century, the island was ...

area of

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, India, located across from the

Police station A police station is a facility operated by police or a similar law enforcement agency that serves to accommodate police officers and other law enforcement personnel. The role served by a police station varies by agency, type, and jurisdiction, ...

. It was one of the first sites attacked in the

2008 Mumbai attacks The 2008 Mumbai attacks, also referred to as 26/11 attacks, were a series of coordinated Islamic terrorism, Islamist terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist o ...

History

The Leopold Cafe was founded in 1871 by Iranis (a term used for Zoroastrians in Mumbai who arrived in India in the 19th century, as opposed to "

Parsi The Parsis or Parsees () are a Zoroastrian ethnic group in the Indian subcontinent. They are descended from Persian refugees who migrated to the Indian subcontinent during and after the Arab-Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century, w ...

s") and named after King Leopold of the Belgians. These Zoroastrian Iranians came to India in the late 19th and early 20th century, and many of them opened restaurants now often termed

Irani café Irani cafés are Iranian-style cafés in the Indian subcontinent. They were originally opened by Zoroastrian Irani immigrants to British India in the 19th century, fleeing Safavid persecution or looking for better economic prospects. In India, M ...

s. It first started out as a wholesale cooking oil store and over the years has variously been a restaurant, store and pharmacy (hence the name "Leopold Cafe & Stores"). Prior to the terrorist attack, the cafe was particularly known as a popular hangout for foreign tourists. After the attack, it is now also popular with many Indians to commemorate the spirit of defiance. The Leopold Cafe has preserved some of the signs of the attack as a memorial, whereas at the

Taj Mahal Palace Hotel The Taj Mahal Palace is a heritage, five-star, luxury hotel in the Colaba area of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, situated next to the Gateway of India. Built in the Indo-Saracenic style, it opened in 1903 as the Taj Mahal Hotel and has historically ...

and the Trident Hotel, the damage from the attacks has been repaired. The cafe uses an

Achaemenid Persian Lion Rhyton The Achaemenid Persian Lion Rhyton () is a gold rhyton from the Achaemenid Empire, dated to about 500 BC. It is 6.7 inches high (about 17 cm.) and is made in solid gold, with the different parts joined together by soldering, done so skilfully ...

as a part of its logo to indicate its Zoroastrian affiliation. The cafe is one of a couple of Irani cafes that are still doing good business, while many others are fading away.

2008 Mumbai attacks

The cafe was an early site of gunfire and grenade explosions during the

by terrorists on 26 November, at about 9:30 PM. The terrorists, approximately an hour after landing, fired shots into the restaurant from outside, killing 11 people and injuring 28 people. The restaurant was extensively damaged during the attacks. Sourav Mishra, a

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

reporter and one of the first media witnesses of the attack, suffered severe bullet injuries. After spending one and a half minutes at the Leopold Cafe, the terrorists walked over to the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, the main target. The cafe defiantly reopened four days after the attack, but was reclosed on the recommendation of the police as a safety measure after two hours, due to the unexpectedly large size of crowds gathering there.

In popular culture

The cafe was also mentioned extensively in the novel '' Shantaram'' and its sequel '' The Mountain Shadow''. Shantaram is about an Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escapes from jail and flees to Bombay, as Mumbai was formerly called. Of all the very typical "Bombay" things and places mentioned in the book is the Leopold Café. The novel was the reason many patrons returned after the attack. Tourists back at Leopold with Shantaram, Azera Rahman, IANS, Mumbai, Dec 11, 2008
/ref>

References

External links

*
Map showing cafe location

IraniChai, Mumbai history project
{{Portal bar , Food Coffeehouses and cafés in India Restaurants in Mumbai Restaurants established in 1871 Indian companies established in 1871 2008 Mumbai attacks 1871 establishments in India

History

2008 Mumbai attacks

In popular culture

See also

References

External links