The Crown Bakery at Bazaar Street in Mylapore.
At Bazaar Street in Mylapore, lined with a variety of retailers, “hoary-haired” enterprises present up with spectacular frequency. Aged 121, The Crown Bakery wins the demographic tug-of-war amongst these outdated enterprises arms down.
Established in 1905 by Kanthasamy Mudaliar, the reins of the store can be handed on to the present household, the descendants of M. Srinivasan, an admirable torch-bearer of this patiently baked legacy, for a number of a long time.
Whereas Srinivasan’s daughter Bhavani Srinivasan manages the store, the youthful era is parked within the wings, stepping in sometimes to deliver its personal vitality and concepts to the oven.
Twenty-three-year-old Keerthana .V, Bhavani’s niece and Srinivasan’s granddaughter and one who epitomises the Gen Z engagement, recollects a brainstorming session by the Gen Zers within the household that resulted within the introduction of ice cream desserts to the bakery’s invoice of fare. On a barely tangential be aware, in a renovation train carried out round 5 months in the past, the bakery elevated its showcases from two to 3, with one showcase devoted to ice cream desserts.
The youthful era’s recommendations had been instrumental within the introduction of puffs and pastries and people ice cream desserts, bringing contemporariness to the bakery’s repertoire. As regards to repertoire, the bakery additionally continues to make soup sticks, a easy and conventional product given to infants throughout teething.
However there isn’t any trigger for the outdated choices (breads and buns, bun-butter jam and common desserts) to really feel threatened by this New-Age method. If meals is a music album recorded in flavours, well-liked demand ensures some “flavours” are performed on a loop. The bakery’s bun-butter jam belongs to that class and stays a transparent, all-time favorite. And custom round how it’s supplied to the client can also be fiercely preserved: every serving is ready freshly in entrance of the client quite than packaged and left on the shelf. Right here, Keerthana volunteers a trivia: throughout World Conflict II, the bakery reportedly rationed bread, and based on historical past handed on by phrase of mouth, British personnel stationed within the space purchased bread from right here when few retailers had been distributing it. That is an account Srinivasan had narrated to Keerthana in addition to the opposite grandchildren within the household.
The outdated recipes stay unchanged, preserved on yellowed items of paper, written in an ink that defies erasure. “We don’t strive to slot in a selected field or overly modernise something,” says Keerthana. The concept, she explains, is to not exchange custom however to let it develop alongside the tastes of the brand new era.
This steadiness is probably going the explanation it manages to maintain its buyer base in addition to add steadily to it. She observes, “Individuals have at all times preferred what we produced through the years and therefore they maintain coming again.” The connection the bakery has maintained with its clients is most evident through the Xmas tide. Forward of Christmas, The Crown Bakery’s rum-soaked plum cake, ready with dried fruits and raisins soaked in rum for months, attracts clients from throughout town and past. Some even ship desserts overseas to kin. “Our plum desserts are to be killed for, to be sincere. I personally was craving these plum desserts whereas I used to be in the UK doing my Masters, and my household has despatched it over a number of instances,” Keerthana says.
If The Crown Bakery has managed to ford challenges in latest instances, together with decreased entry to its doorways as a result of Metro Rail work, it’s the want to see the enterprise survive time that’s shared by members of the family throughout generations.
Requested what makes this store distinctive apart from the menu, Keerthana observes notes that at one stage, this bakery is women-centric, their function in its continuance being distinguished. She explains: “After my grandfather handed away, it has been solely the ladies who’ve run the place. Our household itself is women-predominant. My grandfather has 4 daughters and every of them has one daughter. And most of these taking good care of the bakery are ladies.”
After which the Gen Z issue: there are eight grandchildren within the household. And this constituency takes pleasure within the bakery. They characterize the following era of custodians, set to make sure that a narrative that begun in 1905 continues. Keerthana notes she or some other teenager within the household will probably be honoured to take it ahead.
“You will note us for a lot of extra years,” is her beaming response to the challenges of the instances.
(Forward of Madras Day, Resilience Sequence tracks outdated markets within the metropolis which might be below the shadow of a serious civic infrastructure work however are soldiering on with inimitable poise.)
Printed – August 16, 2026 07:43 am IST
