Mumbai is a city full of hot spots. Trendy night clubs open and close with regularity. These days everyone is buzzing about a club called Valhalla. If you want live music and a hip crowd, you've got to go to the Blue Frog. But though trends change, none is more enduring than the Leopold Café.

by Chhavi Sachdev and Louise Dunne
 
Situated in the touristy Colaba area of South Mumbai, amid remnants of colonial architecture, Leo's opened in 1871 and was Mumbai's second bar at the time. It's always packed with a mixed crowd of regulars and tourists and a few years ago it was featured in the best-selling book Shantaram. It's very unassuming but, as Rahul - a regular patron for 19 years - explains, that's part of its charm.
 
"So at Leopold's although there is no music and no air conditioning, there is a lot of noise from the streets - it's got very high ceilings and the kind of buzz and energy generated from the chatter, inside is very conducive to sit down and spend some time - catch up - for a snack, for a meal. It's just a great place for a conversation."
 
Bullet holes
But those buzzing conversations at Leo's were disrupted in shocking fashion on November 26 last year, when a group of terrorists entered the city. The bar was the first place they opened fire - killing two waiters, wounding patrons and beginning a fire that gutted part of the building.
 
Eric Anthony has been the manager for more than a decade. He was at the bar when the terrorists opened fire and when a hand grenade blew up the cash register. You can still see the bullet holes in the glass and the walls. Leopold had to close, he says, but not for long.
 
"We were shut for four days because the terrorists were holed up, so the whole area was sealed and the curfew order was there. So we had to pull down the shutters. Then we opened up again at one gate - all media persons, and at the other gate all customers from all over the world. They just wanted to come and see what happened to Leopold's. So we couldn't control the crowd, we had to call the cops. It was overwhelming, people were just coming to, like pay respect to the ones who died, we lost two waiters. It was like a stampede here  - people were all here to cheer us up like -  we are with you."
 
Hotcakes
The week after 26/11 there were protests and peace rallies in and around Leo's. T-shirts were produced with the slogan Mumbai Meri Jaan - Mumbai my life, they were on sale at the bar and went like hotcakes. One patron, Ronnie, put the feelings of many Leo's regulars into words.

"I was here pretty much the next weekend ...Obviously I like this place, I come here a lot. I live my life in a certain manner I don't want to live it in fear. If something will happen it will happen eventually, so it doesn't really matter where. Obviously there was a cause - there was a cause, you know, to show that nothing would burn down the spirit that we have within, to just go out and enjoy a place the way we want to."
 
And there you have it, The Leopold Café, an old hot spot renewed in the heart of Mumbai and her citizens.

Listen to a report on Leo's café: