Hotel Broadway stands where Delhi ends and Dilli begins — where chaos in rhythm gives way to rhythm in chaos. As the weather takes a turn here in the capital, it is also getting ready for a new life.

Its iconic restaurant Chor Bizarre, which made fans out of many leaders, diplomats, politicians, artists, writers, and Bollywood legends, started humming those notes of days gone by once again this week. Opened in 1990, it was single-handedly responsible for introducing many to Kashmiri wazwan, and reintroducing many more to that classic era of Hindi film music. It threw open the gates of nostalgia on October 16.

The playlist has remained unchanged.

An old map of Delhi in the restaurant

Just like the most of the restaurant – the Tiffany lamps, the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, and Steve McQueen looking at you from the corner, that staircase going nowhere, the vintage car turned into a chaat-mobile... Even the crack on the floor.

For, when it comes to this one, Rohit Khattar, founder-chairman of Old World Hospitality, credited for inventive Indian cuisine via Indian Accent, and contemporary brands like Comorin, Fireback, and Hosa, would rather continue to celebrate the past. “Chor Bizarre is an icon. It is from the ’90s. So, I’m not going to mess around with that. People love nostalgia,” says Khattar. Well, so does he.

The vintage car turned chaat-mobile

He was 27 when he converted part of the Hotel Broadway’s guest lounge into the themed restaurant, and in an age-appropriate attempt at being “cool”, chose to pun it. Yet, his collection of seemingly mismatched art and knick-knacks somehow brought everything together. “Of all my brands, this one is closest to my heart. It was my first,” adds Khattar.

It was also where once he missed meeting the then Pakistan Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif. Having heard about the place’s Kashmiri Tarami, Sharif had decided to visit. It was late in the night and Khattar, after having been “disturbed for a lot of celebrity visits, had just asked the staff a few days back to treat all guests alike and not wake me up every time”. So, they did not!

He quickly took back his decision. For, who knows, despite howsoever embarrassing it might have been, he might have otherwise missed that meeting with Sharmila Tagore, too. “I used to sing her movie songs all the time, and Mere sapnon ke rani (from her 1969 hit with Rajesh Khanna - Aradhana) was my favourite. And, to my embarrassment, that was how someone introduced me to her,” he recalls.

Chor Bizarre has a bigger bar and a lengthier menu now. Yet, its Tarami (which is actually the beaten copper dish in which traditional wazwan is served), galouti kebabs, and palak-patta chaat, among many other items on the menu, still invoke the same feeling of warmth and unpretentiousness that has always defined Old Delhi.

The Kashmiri wazwan served in a tarami, a beaten copper dish

Chef Srinivas A, whose association with Chor Bizarre goes back to 2008, could not be happier at the reunion and is visibly proud to “once again serve real India on a plate”. Hence, here, neither the music overpowers conversations nor it is the other way round. It is only when the food arrives at the table that the clinking of the cutlery drowns the crooning of Rafi, Kishore, Lata, or Asha. Only till the playlist throws up a curveball in an unfamiliar Shammi Kapoor song, and you quietly once again start revisiting your memories.

The hotel, meanwhile, having stood at the confluence of two Delhis on Asaf Ali Road, since 1956, is undergoing refurbishments and should be open for guests in a couple of months. On a road that has lost many of its landmarks to time, Delite Cinema among the few still breathing, Hotel Broadway might have a come a long way from the Rs. 15-a-room days, but Khattar promises its spirit remains the same.

Old brochures of the hotel

For the uninitiated, it opened when a businessman from Kashmir – Tirath Ram Amla bought the building in an auction. The goal was to convert it into a summer home for the family. The fine print, that he missed, was a mandate to run it like a four-storeyed hotel. It was also perhaps the city’s very first high-rise hotel too. Khattar’s mother inherited it from her father and ran it till the family had to shut it down in 2020 due to COVID-19.

There were even rumours of the family parting with the property. “No. We were always very sentimental about it. My grandfather built it. My mother ran it during the 1970s, ‘80s, ‘90s. So, there was never an intention to sell it at all. Who knows! By the time I get older, perhaps my kids will take over. We’ll see,” Khattar says, while hinting that there might just be more Chor Bizarres in the near future. The hotel’s dingy bar, Thugs, that paid an ode to Hindi film villains, might make a comeback too.

After all, there are still basements full of myriad pieces collected from across the globe, many old Bollywood posters waiting to get framed, and perhaps many more mismatched chairs waiting their place around a table.