Messes, informal restaurants serving traditional, home-style food, have been part of Chennai’s culinary fabric for decades. From a tiny eatery tucked inside Triplicane that is run by a man who ‘worships’ Subramania Bharati, to one that was started by a friendly neighbourhood ‘mami’, and another that was started by poet Kannadasan’s daughter, we visit three messes with interesting stories to them.
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Bharathi Mess


Akbar Street, off Bharathi Salai, Triplicane
Open from:7 a.m. to 10.30 p.m.
Contact:4357 0162
Aportrait of a fiery Bharati catches your eye first. Next in the line of vision are four small bowls of food placed in front of the revolutionary poet who stirred the love for freedom with his writing. The day I visit, the prasadam was idli-chutney and pongal-sambar for breakfast. During lunch, the bowls bear kootu, poriyal, rice and sambar.
Over the four years since it began, Bharathi Mess, jointly run by brothers S. Kannan and S. Saravanan, has made a name for itself. It’s especially popular with the mansion-dwellers of Triplicane, but also draws customers who travel quite a distance to partake of the kitchen’s signature home-style cooking. Various notice boards proclaim the food philosophy here — no preservatives, additives or taste enhancers. Kannan says that in the first year of operation, they did use palm oil and hydrogenated vegetable oil, but once he read about their ill-effects, he switched to healthier options.
Kannan worships Bharati, and he reigns everywhere — his thoughts, books and photographs are celebrated in the 10-table mess, with only standing space for about 40 people.
The mess is known for its liberal use of millets, traditional rice varieties such as mapillai samba and greens. Kannan’s daughter Shalini, who now handles the service area, says that it delights them that people voluntarily ask for uzhunthu koozh (a gruel with urad dal) and sumithi paal (with sukku, milagu and thippili) instead of coffee. And that kozhukattais and puttu are as popular as medhu vadai and vaazhaipoo vadai.
The mess offers two varieties of meals every day — regular (Rs. 65) and vegetable meals (Rs. 85). The latter comprises at least 400 gm of vegetables, a serving of mapillai samba rice, a millet urundai and a kali. The cooks steer clear of sugar, and jaggery is the only sweetener used. Among the star dishes is creamy buttermilk, redolent with curry leaves — perfect to round off a healthy meal on a hot Chennai afternoon.
The mess is revolutionary in the way it treats its staff as well — they are provided with transport to and from their homes and are given an incentive of Rs. 25 each day for being punctual, and an extra Rs. 25 for dressing neatly. For the brothers, who hail from Konapattu near Karaikudi, running the establishment is “not business, but service”.
Every day, more than a 100 kg of vegetables are used — mainly in the poriyal and kootu. Supervising the cleaning and cutting is Bhuvaneswari, Kannan’s wife, who doubles up as head cook. Helping her is Saravanan’s wife Vaidehi, who also handles the office. They love the fact that many customers consider their mess a second home.
For some years now, Ramu C., a businessman, has been travelling from Porur to Triplicane thrice a week for the afternoon meals. “I live with my family, but this food is too good to resist,” he says. Kannan mentions an 87-year-old customer who takes an auto to the mess every day for lunch — the transportation costs more than the food! “This kind of trust scares me, but reinforces the thought that we must take every care to serve good food.”
What moves Kannan most is the location of the mess. “To think that I run an establishment in the same route that my idol used to walk on to go to the beach… can there be a better blessing?” he asks.
SUBHA J RAO

Mami Tiffen Stall Pitchu Pillai Street, Mylapore Open from:7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Contact:2464 3525

Not many knew her name. They just referred to her as ‘mami’, a respectful term for an elderly lady. They didn’t know what her restaurant was called either. They called it ‘Mami mess’ or ‘Mami kadai’. Men and women thronged the tiny mess located in a narrow lane off Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore. Some swore by the kozhukattais served there and some others came for the idli and milagai podi. But mostly, they came to take comfort in the grandmotherly warmth of G. Vasantha.
“She had this aura about her that attracted customers to her mess that functioned in the evenings; not to mention her kai pakkuvam (flair) for the best thavala vadais in all of Mylapore,” says Vasantha’s son G. Kapaleeswaran. Vasantha built Mami Mess on her own, at a time when women barely stepped out of their homes.
“She came to Chennai from Alwarkurichi in 1969,” says Kapaleeswaran. “My mother was barely 19 then; she was accompanied by my father K.S. Ganesan Iyer. They had worked at a restaurant back home.” Three years later, Vasantha opened an eatery on Pitchu Pillai Street in Mylapore. “She initially sold murukkus and a few other savoury items. But she gradually got requests from customers to make tiffin items as well. Home-sick women would tell her ‘Mami, I feel like having the kal dosai my mother makes. Can you make it for me?’” says Kapaleeswaran.
Vasantha would cook the dishes at home and serve it at her mess. “Orders poured in and she started making tiffin items regularly,” adds Kapaleeswaran. Vasantha had a lot of celebrities in her clientèle — ‘Thengai’ Srinivasan, Manorama… Today, her framed photo oversees the revamped ‘Mami Tiffen Stall’; Vasantha passed away in 2003. There are tables and chairs and bright lights — a far cry from the mess set-up. “We revamped in 2010,” explains Kapaleeswaran.
But not too much has changed. The food remains the same — sweet and savoury kozhukattais, vadais and rasam rice… “People still remember my mother,” smiles Kapaleeswaran. “A lot of them still come just for her.” Vasantha was chatty and generous. “I remember how she handled the local rowdies. We would cower behind her while she spoke to them in her firm tone. Even the most obnoxious rowdies kept their distance from her. She was never afraid.”
Then there was this man from Coimbatore to whom Vasantha offered Rs. 100 when he came to her empty-handed. “She fed him and gave him a place to say,” says Kapaleeswaran. “A few years ago, he brought his entire family to the mess. He said he wanted to return the Rs. 100 my mother gave him.”
AKILA KANNADASAN

Balaji Fast Food aka Kannadasan Mess


Kannadasan Salai, T Nagar
Open from:7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Contact:98409 50085
When they started out about two decades ago, they served non-vegetarian biriyani. And, they had no name.
Today, still located in a 700-sq-ft cramped space off Venkatanarayana Road, they serve pure vegetarian fare. And, they have a name that everybody in Chennai who follows poetry knows.
Kannadasan Mess — officially called Balaji Fast Food — was started by Kalaiselvi Chokkalingam (poet Kannadasan’s daughter) and her husband at a time when T. Nagar was still not big on food and restaurants.
“We had no competition then,” recalls Kalaiselvi, “Once my husband left his job at a company, we thought we’d start a small eatery.”
Back then, they did most of the cooking and serving. Soon, they earned enough to employ two people to help.
Today, they have 12 people working for them — all of them operating in the whereabouts of a small kitchen wrapped in the scent of sambar and chutney.
Their official name notwithstanding, everybody who ate at this joint referred to it as “the hotel near Kannadasan’s house”.
Over time, the legendary poet-lyricist’s name has become synonymous with the hotel. Even today, his photograph is part of the shop’s name board.
They started serving South Indian tiffins like dosai (Rs. 35 onwards) and idli for dinner — which became quite popular with bachelors and families in the neighbourhood — and soon branched out to offer lunch and breakfast.
In the early mornings and late evenings, joggers and fitness enthusiasts head to the mess for a quick snack after their routine workout at the nearby Natesan Park. Lunch is also a busy time here — they serve both meals (Rs. 50 onwards) and variety rice (Rs. 40 onwards), and are frequented by office-goers in the area.
Kalaiselvi says that one of the reasons that it remains popular, despite competition, is due to the taste they have maintained over the years.
“No soda, no hydrogenated vegetable oil... and most of the times, no ghee too,” she says, “I also believe that an owner needs to be at a mess and taste everything.”
She ensures she’s there every day — along with her sons, Saravanan Kannadasan and Srinivasan Kannadasan, who take turns to help their mother out to manage the orders from customers, who patiently wait in queue for their food.
“My sons talk about social media and the Internet and how we need to adapt to the changing food business,” she smiles, even as she keeps a watchful eye over the cook stirring the kurma for the day
SRINIVASA RAMANUJAM
The mess is known for its liberal use of millets, traditional rice varieties and greens