My mother told me a small story. In her teens, she used to go to this eating joint every weekend just to listen to the Hindi melodies played there. “Just by paying 25 paise, we could choose any of our favourite melodies from the jukebox,” she recalls. And then my mother explains, “For `1, we could get a tall tumbler full of special tea”. Amused, I ask more about her delightful memories, and she tells me about this hotel at the corner of the road — Hotel Coronet. A while ago, a man from Malapuzha came to Chennai to start a hotel business. What made him find a place exactly at the junction of the busy Adyar road still remains a mystery. Not knowing that Coronet would become one of the much-loved hotels, in the city, Alavi Haji started Hotel Coronet in 1955. With three generations in a row to enrich the heritage property, the hotel is now operated by Danish Ahammed, grandson of Alavi Haji.Popularly referred as the corner food joint by locals, Hotel Coronet has been around for more than 50 years now. Listening to my mother’s tales sparked my curiosity to visit this eatery of course. So, I took a quick sojourn to the hotel that is now located amid flyovers and bustling traffic. Still holding its vintage charm, Coronet (although it does come across a tad shady from outside) has its regular customers occupying their favourite seats during lunch and dinner. Not many know that the building was once sheltered by an asbestos roof in ’60s, when the distinctive brick structure had a different name – ‘The Besant’, before being re-coronated, so to speak, the Coronet in 1970.As I stroll along the hotel, I felt pleasantly welcome by the crumbling walls and the exhausted wooden chairs that are 50 years old. Old melodies played in the ancient radios and the aroma of chicken biryani wafting through the air was blissful after a tiring day. Rewinding the clock a good number of years, you’ll realise that this place was nestled amid shady streets, lined with stately bungalows and quaint cottages. Mohammed explains, “Our hotel used to be the only eatery in 1960s. The entire stretch from Coronet to the IIT garden was a forest.” He paints a picture: “There were horse drawn carts and very few buses running from IIT to Adyar. There used to be very few places in this locality, like the Theosophical Society, Snake Park and Cancer Institute.”Conversing with Mohammed, I’m reminded of how friendly and pleasing old people are as he cherishes the good old memories of yore. Apparently, he joined the hotel in 1964 as a waiter and has been serving here for past 48 years. He recalls, “When I joined, we had only 10 people working in this hotel. Our regular customers used to be students from IIT and Anna University who used to find this place one of the hotspots during those days. We have served stuffed capsicum, chole bature, asparagus, mushrooms, grilled chicken and a whole lot of dishes with different names given by us.” Menus change with the seasons and “not everything is regional or local as much as possible,” says Mohammed. Chicken biryani for `4 is unbelievably a shock to today’s biryani-lovers, at least for me. “Our hotel was famously called the military hotel that served non-vegetarian meals at `1.50 and tea for 28 paise.”Despite its old world charm, the hotel has acquired a certain modern convenience, with several floors, all air-conditioned suited for cosmopolitan lifestyle. But step in, and you’ll still feel a sense of warmth and welcome, not to mention a king-size meal at a minimal price!
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