If there’s one place that’s been flooding Instagram timelines lately, it’s SLOW: a cafe and bakery by actor and content creator Viraj Ghelani and his wife, Palak Khimavat, a self-taught chef and baker. Opened in Kandivali just over a month ago, the vegan-only cafe has already built a loyal following, with wait times ranging from 20 to 45 minutes, depending on the day.
Called ‘SLOW’, complete with a slightly tilted and relaxed ‘O’, the cafe is meant to be a gentle rebellion in a city that’s always in a rush. “Mumbai is a very fast city. We wanted people to come here and slow down,” said Ghelani, 32. That philosophy also carries over to the menu, where everything is made fresh and from scratch, from fries and nachos to salsas, a detail that the cafe’s now-viral videos underline perfectly.
The cafe’s design reflects the spirit of SLOW: warm, understated and earthy, with gray walls, wooden tables and chairs upholstered in muted tones, while color is carried through the food, drinks and plants.
The name was Khimavat’s idea, while the logo was designed by visual artist Too Sid, a friend of Ghelani. “He didn’t charge me a cent,” he said, adding that the artist’s favorite coffee has since made its way onto the menu that bears his name.
For Khimavat, SLOW feels like a natural progression of a journey that began in 2018, when he launched The Messy House – Dessert Bar & Cafe. She was set to study at the Culinary Institute of America when the pandemic interrupted those plans. “This was always the dream,” he said.
Ghelani’s jump into the food business, on the other hand, came from instinct and appetite. “I’ve been eating the food she makes for years and I crave it. I knew what the world was missing,” he said. “I can’t eat any other cake today, not because it’s my wife, but because it’s really, really good. I thought, why not take advantage of the opportunity I already have at home?”
Actor and content creator Viraj Ghelani and his wife, Palak Khimavat, a self-taught chef and baker, are the founders of SLOW, a bakery and cafe in Kandivali.
The 1,500 sq ft cafe is located inside a three-storey residential building in Mahavir Nagar, Kandivali West, and seats around 40 people comfortably in a mix of individual seating, group arrangements and communal tables. Designed by Khimavat’s sister-in-law, Kinjal Goradia of A+iD, the space reflects the spirit of the cafe: warm, understated and earthy, with gray walls, wooden tables and chairs upholstered in muted tones, while color is carried through the food, drinks and plants.
The food and beverage program is provided entirely by Khimavat. While baking has long been her forte, she has spent the last two years learning the nuances of coffee, working with matcha, and perfecting the tasty menu. The result is a compact offering that leans firmly toward comfort food.
Interested in ingredient sourcing
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“It’s food you can come back to again and again,” Ghelani said, pointing out dishes like macaroni and cheese and a gochujang noodle dish. The desserts here are an extension of Khimavat’s previous venture,healthy disorderwith an emphasis on brown sugar, coconut sugar, and natural sweetness derived from fruits and chocolate.
Udon noodles, mushroom toast and SLOW chocolate cake.
The cafe is equally picky about its ingredient sourcing (milk from Pride of Cows, cheese delivered daily from a Gujarat-based farm) and completely avoids refined sugar and flour. The pastas are made with semolina, the noodles are udon, and as Khimavat simply says, “Everything is made fresh.”
This writer tried the Hot and Gooey Skillet Cookie, a rich hot chocolate made with 55 percent homegrown dark cocoa and creamy tofu and tomato toast. The coffee program, which currently generates a large portion of the cafe’s sales, includes Aeropress, pourovers and cold brews along with regular espresso-based drinks.
With Ghelani at the helm, interest was inevitable. On its opening day alone, the café received around 750 visitors. “It’s been more than a month now. The hype has died down, but people are still coming,” he said. “There’s always the fear that tomorrow there won’t be as many people, but there is, and that always excites me.”
Why Kandivali?
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The choice of Kandivali instead of a more obvious neighborhood like Bandra was deliberate. “We wanted people to come to this side of the city: Malad, Kandivali, Borivali,” Ghelani said. “We only have one or two good coffees here. We want this to be the new ‘It’ pocket.”
They admit that running a food business is not easy. “We are here every day from the afternoon until about 1:30 in the morning. It’s a thankless job,” Ghelani said. Jimavat agreed. “No matter how much you plan, there is a new crisis every day,” he said, who was earlier on a call trying to find a technician to repair a machine that unexpectedly broke down a day ago.
They are already thinking about the future. Starting in March, the cafe plans to operate in two shifts, opening at 9 a.m. and staying open until midnight (it currently operates from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m.). There are more projects underway, Khimavat hinted, choosing his words carefully. “But,” he said, “there will only be one SLOW.”