6, Elphinstone Road, Pune Camp - 411001, Maharashtra, India
kayanibakery@yahoo.com, 020 26360517, +91 91759 65421
Monday to Saturday, 7.30am to 1pm, 3.30pm to 7pm
We have no other outlets, franchisees or online ordering portals except delivery partners ZOMATO
A PART OF PUNE's HISTORY:
What existed before Kayani Bakery Poona at that spot?
Who doesn’t know Kayani Bakery? People come from all over the country to buy their goodies.
But who knows what existed before Kayani? Any guesses?
Here is part of a lovely story penned by Chinmay Damle which appeared in the Hindustan Times.
Where Kwality, The Telephone office and Kayani stand today was an elegant bakery and restaurant called *E Muratore*. Those who have the 1925 Poona Guide ( some have posted pics from there) might find an ad by Muratore. He is also in the East Street address list.
Over to Chinmay's piece.
Muratore’s was “a big stone-flagged room with several punkahs”. Tables had stretched white cloths, napery, vases of flowers and lots of potted ferns. Uniformed turbaned waiters stood in attendance and an effusive Mr. Muratore greeted his guests.
Muratore speaks in a thick Italian accent and has a quick wit. “Now-a-we hav-a essspecial men-a-u: fresh prauns (prawns) with-a-new pititoes (potatoes) garlic bride (bread) timitoes (tomatoes) Brussels-a-sprites (sprouts)”, he reads out the menu while Gopal, an Indian waiter, stands behind him. When Florence asks, “What’s the chicken like?”, Muratore shrugs his shoulder and replies, “It doesn’t like anything, it’s dead”.
The guests order chicken madras, omelettes and pastries. They drink Catalan wine and Moet et Chandon, which is on the house. The guests have to occasionally wave flies off their faces.
E Muratore was situated on Main Street . It later shifted to East Street sometime around 1906. The property was owned by Sir Maneckji Mehta and was leased to Muratore. There are several reports in various journals and newspapers over the years which speak highly of Muratore’s cooking and his philanthropy.
After the Second World War started in 1939, the British arrested the Germans and the Italians living in India. Muratore was interned at Fort Purandar.
What happened to him after that, is not known. Around 1942, the British auctioned off his restaurant to Ghulam Hussain Pakseema. Pakseema owned a couple of restaurants in Bombay. Café Chevalier, an Italian restaurant, was one of them, which he renamed as Pioneer Coffee House.
Pakseema successfully ran E Muratore till 1947 when he decided to move to newly created Pakistan. Muratore was again left without an owner.
Ganpatrao Sathe, the proprietor of the famed Sathe Biscuits and Chocolate Works Ltd, was trying to work around the shortage of sugar in Pune in 1941. Rationing had started in India due to the war and the quota for sugar in Pune was inadequate to fulfil the demand of the factory. Sindh on the other hand had a huge quota for sugar which was lying unclaimed.
Sathe grasped the opportunity, purchased 10,000 sq. yards of land in Karachi and started Sathe Sindh Chocolate Works. The company was one of the leading manufacturers of drinking chocolate in Asia in the early 1940s. It still exists in Karachi as Sindh Chocolate Works.
After partition, the Refugee Property Exchange Commission handed over Sathe’s factory in Karachi to Pakseema, and Sathe became the proud owner of Muratore. Sathe entered into a partnership with Shankarrao Joshi and LD Bhave (who established the first LPG gas agency in Pune) to run the restaurant.
In 1953, Morarji Desai, the then chief minister of Bombay State, enforced prohibition. Muratore no longer remained a profitable venture because alcohol has a higher profit margin than food. Sathe shut it down in 1954.
The following year, Kayani Bakery started its operations in the building occupied by Muratore. Kwality restaurant and the telephone office shared the premises. The ovens and the baking equipment in Kayani belonged to Muratore."