The anatomy of a new restaurant in 2021 should be like this: it should make you feel like youâre on a vacation without having to take the dreaded COVID test. It should keep you close to nature. Shouldnât serve any of 2020âs overdone foods like banana bread or Dalgona coffee (the sourdough can stay). And it should have great music, food and drinksâthe only three things we are carrying forward from last year. Cafe Panama ticks all the right boxes.
Thirty five-year-old entrepreneur Sohel Lalvaniâs and Shaan Gidwani's all-new cafe is one of the first five new dining spaces to launch in the city. And if beginner's luck is really a thing, he has lucked out on this 3,500sqft space that reminds me of JLo walking down the runaway for Versace spring 2020. But Iâll come to that later.