This is the fifth of the five-article series of blog posts about Bombay’s Iranian Bakeries and Cafes. If you want to read it in a single, scrollable long-form format, you can access it here.

Apart from how they all look and feel, and the kind of food that they serve – there’s another common factor that connects the surviving Irani bakeries and cafes of Bombay. Their future remains uncertain.

Facing stiff competition from Quick Service Restaurants and fast-food joints, along with infrastructure and policy-related changes, as well as a changing preference among the consumers, the number of Irani bakeries and cafes in Bombay has dropped down from over 300 to less than 50. However, this is not where the actual problem lies. Currently, most of these cafes and bakeries are being managed by the second or third generation of Iranians who started them. However, the gen-next doesn’t seem to be keen on managing this business anymore.

A common theme that most of the cafe-owners talked about was how their children were not interested in managing the cafes. Darius, who runs the Byculla Restaurant and Bakery commented that his father started this bakery – and it is because of this attachment that he continues to run it. Upon being asked what will happen to the bakery in the future, one of his friends from the aforementioned Sunrise Club pointed out that Ladka Canada me hai[…]hotel business toh gaya. (His son is in Canada, the hotel business is dead.)

A similar, sombre tone entered the conversation when the otherwise-cheerful owner of the Sassanian Boulangerie, Meheraban Kola, was asked this question, he pointed out that a number of bakeries have already shut shop or have become something completely different from what they once were. He added: No one knows what the future is, my son[…]I am doing this for my heart’s fulfilment[…]As long as I can run it, I will run it[…]Man proposes, God disposes. Tirandaz of Yazdani Bakery, however, was the lone exception. He was quite optimistic about the future, pointing out that the bakery will pass on from generation to generation, confident that there will be someone from the family who will manage the bakery.

With less than 50 Iranian bakeries and cafes left in Bombay, would these century-old establishments, which have become a core part of the heritage and cultural ethos of the city be able to continue for long? Or are these the last years of these bakeries? It is tragic that at a time when premium Irani/Parsi-cafe themed restaurants are opening up across the country, the original Iranian cafes are winding up.

We’ll know the day has come when the Bombay breeze shall no longer carry the smell of freshly-baked buns and the sugary-sweet Iranian tea.

This is the fifth of the five-article series of blog posts about Bombay’s Iranian Bakeries and Cafes. Here are the links to all the parts:

• Introduction: Documenting Bombay’s Irani Bakeries and Cafes
• The Irani Cafe Experience: Bombay’s Iconic Bakeries and Cafes
• The Taste of Iran: Food at the Irani Bakeries and Cafes of Bombay
• Meeting The Showrunners: Men Who Manage Mumbai’s Iranian Bakeries and Cafes
• Curtain Call? The Disappearing Irani Bakeries and Cafes of Bombay