Return of Mehrauli"s hip stores & eateries

Three years after Delhi"s high society lost its Mecca in Mehrauli to the municipal corporation"s cranes that razed local landmarks like One Style Mile and Ambavatta to the ground, the laws that brought down those building and dislocated several thriving shops and restaurants suddenly seem to have disappeared.

The Olive Bar and Kitchen, Thai Wok restaurant and designer store Ayamik are all set to reopen at their original locations within the next two months. And with big boys like restaurateur AD Singh going back to Mehrauli, the others are sure to follow.

What is it that suddenly changed things to allow commercial establishments to return to Delhi"s former high street of fashion and fine dining, Kalka Dass Marg? "The MCD had created a policy for villages last year, which has recently included urban villages such as Hauz Khas and Mehrauli. Thanks to this new notification, commercial activity is now allowed in Mehrauli," explains Singh, who"s excited about the reopening of Olive Bar and Kitchen, which had become the watering hole for the Capital"s who"s who.

The policy Singh is referring to is the Special Provisions Act 2009, which allows commercial activities in urban villages at least till the end of this year , by which time the government will come up with a policy for all villages that come under the law.
"The Special Provisions Act only allows commercial establishments in urban villages to be desealed until December 31," says Deep Mathur, director, press and information, MCD. He explains that the policy, which is expected to be announced by the end of December, will determine the fate of MG Road.
"Unless the government decides to pass another Act to protect the status of these commercial ventures, they will be sealed once against early next year," Mathur adds. But the returning restaurateurs and store owners are not fazed by the fact that they could be shut down and evacuated from Mehrauli once more. Sanjeev Batra, director, One Style Mile, is positive the government will not take a random decision against commercial ventures in the area. "They obviously want people to carry on running their businesses," he rationalises. The property he owns, argues Batra, was earlier used as a sarai or inn, so it had always been used for commercial purposes.
The other landmark that used to bring in the swish set to the narrow lanes of Mehrauli was the Ambavatta Complex, which was home to stores, including those of fashion designers Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna and Ritu Beri, home furnishing store Good Earth and Payal Jauhar"s Thai Wok, which took over the top floor By Angad B. Sodhi and Neha Mathur in New Delhi of Ambavatta. The Thai restaurant that has spent the last three years in Rajouri Garden is set to be the first of Ambavatta"s old residents to re-launch.
"Now that this has been declared a commercial property, we just need to pay the commercial charges and carry on with our business as usual," says an excited Jauhar.
Ayamik, the Delhi outlet of the Mumbai-based high fashion store Kimaya, is all set to return to its original location opposite Adham Khan"s tomb. Pradeep Hirani, the store"s owner, is least concerned about what the future may bring and wants to look at the present. "The place has its own charm that no one else can match," says Hirani, who branched out to Select CityWalk Mall in Saket and DLF Emporio in Vasant Kunj after the MCD"s sealing drive in 2006. He plans to relaunch his One Style Mile store by August. "If they shut us down once more, we"ll re-open somewhere else and carry on, for Kimaya is a well-known brand," Hirani says.
In the same complex as Ayamik, once stood the city"s famous eatery, Olive Bar and Kitchen. It is also being refurbished so it can re-open by September. Singh, the man behind the restaurant, is confident that with normality returning to Mehrauli, whatever decision is taken by the government by December will follow the Master Plan, which is conducive to commercial activity in the area.
But could it be that a lot may have changed in the last three years and people will not come back to Mehrauli as these restaurant and shop owners expect? That will remain a matter of speculation till the fashionistas return to Delhi"s old cowbelt that got only a brief moment to savour its shortlived glory.