Mumbai has lost a special place to eat. B Merwan & Co. Was a cafe and bakery near Grant Road railway station. It was there for a long time, 112 years. Now it is closed for good. They put up a note on the door on January 1 2026 to say it was closed. This has made a lot of people think about the days and how the city is losing its special food places. B Merwan & Co. Was one of the citys food spots and people will really miss it. The closure of B Merwan & Co. Is sad news, for Mumbai.
B Merwan was started in 1914 by Boman Merwan Nazarabadi. This place was not a cafe. It was a part of everyday life in Mumbai. For people who took the train to work people who worked in offices, students and people who lived in Mumbai B Merwan was the place to go for Irani chai and food like buttery bun maska and sweet treats. They were especially famous for their mawa cakes. These cakes would often sell out quickly sometimes within hours of B Merwan opening. B Merwan was really special to a lot of people in Mumbai. They loved going to B Merwan for chai and sweet treats, like mawa cakes.
The café was a nice place because it was simple and always the same. They had a menu that was based on favorites, like mawa cakes and bun maska and brun maska and mawa samosas and jam puffs and Irani chai. These foods are what make the citys café scene so special. People loved the café because the food tasted great and it was comfortable to sit in the bentwood chairs at the old wooden tables and watch what was happening on the street. A lot of customers went to the café every day. They would go there with their family and friends when it was a special occasion and they would share mawa cakes together.
Irani cafés came to Mumbai and other places in South Asia because of people who came from Iran and followed the faith. They started these cafés in the 1800s and early 1900s. There were hundreds of cafés all over Mumbai. People from all kinds of backgrounds would go to these places to drink chai and eat goods. Irani cafés were special because they were open, to everyone.
Things changed over time. It became hard for Irani cafés to stay open because of money problems and other issues. The city. People started to like different things. So now there are a few Irani cafés left in Mumbai.
The closure of B Merwan & Co. Shows that a lot of food places are having a tough time. Over the few years many of these old restaurants have found it hard to deal with increasing costs and new rules. For people who went to the Grant Road café all the time it was really sad to see it close down. This made them think about how these old food places can disappear in a city that is changing so fast. People were talking about this on media and in local news saying that for many people in Mumbai B Merwan was not just a place to grab a bite it was a place that held a lot of memories and was a part of their daily routine. B Merwan was a part of the lives of many Mumbaikars and its closure is a big loss, for them.
Long-time patrons have expressed sadness and disbelief, sharing anecdotes of morning chai rituals and the anticipation of freshly baked mawa cakes that marked both routine and celebration. As one of Mumbai’s oldest cafés, its closure is seen not only as the end of a business but as a symbolic moment in the city’s cultural evolution, underscoring how traditional culinary spaces face increasing threats from contemporary trends and urban transformation.
