Driving past Conron Smith Road or Woods Road, it is easy to miss the small red-and-white boards that read ‘Irani’. But anyone who has walked down the road in the heat, looking for shelter from the sun, will gladly remember the piping hot tea, bun-butter-jam and the small, crisp samosas served by these tea stalls.

For over 40 years, these Irani tea stalls have been serving customers their special ‘dum’ tea with bun-butter-jam. Their tea is made in special utensils that are vacuum-sealed, and the water and tea are boiled for an hour.
Dates in History
 
1900s
The first Irani families are said to have settled in Madras
1960s 
Irani cafes sprang up across the city. National cafe on Mount Road and Cafe Zum Zum on Second Line Beach were especially famous. Over the years, other communities have gotten involved in the running of the shops
Standout Dishes
 
Dum Tea, mini samosas and
bun-butter-jam
Almost all the people who visit the stalls today are regulars who have been coming in for over decades. One of the regulars to the Conron Smith tea stall, M. Nirmal, has been coming here for nearly 20 years. “The best thing about the Irani shops is the special tea. The tea is completely different from any other place in the city and at Rs. 8, the price is very reasonable,” he said.

Deepak Kumaraswamy, another patron, appreciates the bun-butter-jam as an accompaniment to tea. “Both the regular tea and the special tea have a distinct taste and it’s a place that I definitely visit whenever I am in the area,” he said.

Many patrons have fond memories of the Irani tea stall on Woods Road. E. Chandran remembers the days when he used to regularly visit there. “The stall was located right next to the Midland theatre. We used to cycle down from Anna Nagar to watch the movie. As soon as we bought the ticket, we would rush straight to the stall and have a tea with their samosas,” he said.

The first two cafés were opened in the 1960s and once they became popular, more opened, son of the founder, Behram Irani, says.

His father, Marazman Behram Irani, started the Irani tea stall on Walltax Road. Earlier, the family used to run the National Café, and then the Romex Hotel near the Midland theatre. “After a certain point of time, he decided to change his business plan and started focussing on the small Irani tea stalls. None of the stalls are larger than 150 square feet, and the special tea, made in a sealed vessel, along with his bun-butter-jam and mutton samosas would draw large crowds every day,” Mr. Irani said.
The stalls that are around today, however, are a shadow of what they used to be. The business plan is slightly different.

 The owners now produce the samosas and puffs at a central bakery. The mutton samosas have given way to vegetarian ones. Their recipe for their tea, however, has not changed.

Kavitha Kishore The Hindu 8 Aug 2014