Hello Readers!
How would you like to have a place in your city where you can have the coffee of your own choice? In the city full of cafes and restaurants, it is a bliss to find a place where you would love to sit and be able to slurrp large variety of coffee. Well not only the type of coffee but the beans of coffee as well.
Whether it’s the simple yet classic interior or the fragrance of coffee pulling you towards the cafe, Meraki has become indeed my personal favorite and highly recommended to everyone who has divine love for coffee. With its welcoming staff who make your cup of joe after understanding your taste of coffee, I’m sure none of you would get disappointed.
The cafe serves variety of dark coffee, milk based coffee as well as vegan coffees made with coconut milk. Its range of coffee includes Iced pour overs, Cold brew, Classic espresso or Vietnamese and frappes and the best part they never fail to update their equipments of methods with their knowledge. My usual orders include French press with Cinnamon glazed cookie and Cold brew tonic mostly Araku or Shyria on beans.
In just few months this cafe has become everyone’s favourite place to hangout, even on the days of festival it is found glittering with crowd. Sitting at cafes always made me wonder how it feels to spend whole day making coffee and observing the visitors. Hence, I decided to ask few questions to the man behind Meraki The Coffee House- Brijesh Bachkaniwala and share his experience with you in this post. It is inspiring to see this engineer turned into businessman as well as entrepreneur who has successfully turned his passion for coffee into profession.
Hope you enjoy reading the conversation…
What is the history behind Meraki the Coffee House, and what made you want to open up the shop here in Vesu, Surat?
It all began with the coffee workshops that I started at my place. One of my cousin’s husband is from coffee industry and he once told me to start coffee workshops with the knowledge that I had. As the workshops were doing well we thought of an in house coffee shop and with my friends helping me out each evening, the in-house setup started doing so well that we had to move out. I already had a shop in Vesu and as it is a hub for new cafe joints, it was a safe bet for us to open up Meraki the Coffee House.
What inspired the name ‘Meraki’?
It took us around 15 days to find the name for the cafe. ‘Meraki‘ is a Greek word which means ‘putting a piece of your creativity/soul in what you do’ and that is what we do at Meraki. There couldn’t be any other name more perfect than this one.
What do you think sets you apart from the other coffee shops?
With most coffee shops (or rather cafes) serving everything other than coffees we are pretty honest with our work. We try to source the best coffees from the top Roasters of the country and craft each drink in the best possible way, this sets us apart from the other coffee shops.
If you were a customer in your own cafe, what would you order from the menu?
I would order it depending on the mood but mostly they’d be espressos, flat whites or any manual brew, be it hot or iced.
You feel it is important to create a cozy space for your customers? Are there any changes that you want to make to your shop or menu for the changing seasons?
The atmosphere at Meraki is mostly set by aroma of the coffee and continuous harmonious sounds that are created while making coffees. We tend not to do anything fancy with coffees but with changing seasons we have introduced a few new drinks. For summers we introduced Limelite, mazagran, Iced lattes Cold brew with coconut water/milk as well as premium hot chocolate with cinnamon flavor.
Aside from running your business, what are some personal hobbies or local activities that you enjoy?
Making Coffee is one hobby that I had for long time, which fortunately turned into a profession now. Other than that I love playing with my pets and watch football games.
How do you maintain focus while performing repetitive tasks throughout your shift?
Each day the coffees behave differently and what seems repetitive is not that repetitive. Plus the aim is always to serve the best possible coffee and it keeps us focused on what we do.
Things tend to get busy around here, particularly on the weekends. How do you manage stress?
We love serving when it’s busy, it does get crazy at times but for the most part of it, it’s fun and with the great staff that we have (Like Shubham) there’s not much stress.
Shubham is one happening barista at Meraki, who is always welcoming and never fail to make the customers connect with the place.
Describe a time when you went above and beyond to provide excellent customer service.
For most part of my work I try to provide the customers exactly the coffee that they want and if they’re not satisfied we try to provide them other options and if it still doesn’t workout for them we do not Bill their coffee. Other than that whenever we have new coffees coming in from different countries, we invite all our patrons to come try them out.
Customers with different lifestyles come to your cafe many times. Is there anything you got to learn or got inspired by observing anyone?
Before Meraki I always felt that there are only two things to do in Surat for occupation, one is Textile and the other option is Diamonds, but after starting up with Meraki, I realized there are lot many things that people can do in the city. I’ve always been bad at being creative and artistic so whenever I see somebody doing something artistic at the cafe, it blows my mind away.
What advice would you give to someone who is dreaming of opening their own small business?
If you’re planning to start your business put your heart and soul into it and do it with a lot of passion. If you give your 100% to it, you will surely succeed.
“Your money is never wasted, if spent on a good coffee made with great passion.”
Grab your coffee from Meraki with these happy faces brewing it for you!
Happy Sipping
Don’t forget to share your feedback with me.!
Thank you for reading. Photos and Write up by Amreen Khan Special Thanks to Piyush Bharoliya for letting me use some of his great photos created at Meraki.
Instagram @ameyswift
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