Calcutta Telegraph, India
March 10 2006

Revival recipe for landmark Revival on the menu

– Restoration will triple table count at continental cuisine stop
SUBHRO SAHA

The downed shutters of Sky Room, on Park Street, may reopen by next
Poila Baisakh. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya
Sky Room is planning to serve it up again – prawn cocktail,
minestrone soup and all.

What used to be the city’s most-loved continental cuisine stop is set
to reopen its doors in a year, around Poila Baisakh time. The Park
Street landmark has remained shut for over a decade, following labour
trouble.

Part of the restoration and adaptive-reuse initiative undertaken on
the 95-year-old Park Mansions by the Apeejay Surrendra Group, the
eatery could return with its table count tripled.

`Yes, we will surely revive Sky Room, since it has such a strong
brand recall even now,’ Jit Paul, adviser to the group, told Metro.

`However, to be commercially viable in today’s high-cost scenario,
the eatery has to be much bigger than it used to be. We are looking
at 150 covers and the place will most likely be managed by The Park
Hotels,’ he added.

With large sections of the old structure having been freed by paying
off tenants, there are plans to expand either horizontally or `go up’
to accommodate the extra covers being planned for the new-look Sky
Room.

The reopened restaurant will also have its dedicated parking space at
the sunken parking lot in the revamped Park Mansions, plus valet
service linked to the Rawdon Street Parkomat.

`We want to create a destination that will give Park Street another
landmark,’ stressed Paul.

Paul is the brain behind the revival scheme for Park Mansions, being
anchored by architect Dulal Mukherjee.

Constructed by Armenian jute merchant Thaddeus Mesrope Thaddeus in
1910, Park Mansions was acquired by Paul from estate managers Talbot
and Company.

Besides Sky Room, it housed the French cultural centre premises
Alliance Francaise, Bombay Photo and Rajniklal. While Alliance was
ravaged by a fire, Sky Room, which had its interiors done by German
expert Messerschmidt and borrowed the food format from Mocambo across
the road `lock, stock and barrel’, downed shutters in the early
1990s.

Architect Mukherjee plans to use deconstruction architecture to
`create a feel of unlimited space with a strong pedestrian axis’
through a blend of hard and soft landscaping at Park Mansions.

`The second and third floors of the restored building will house a
heritage hotel or service apartments, and we plan to do boutique
retail on the first floor,’ said Paul.

The group, which also runs T3 – The Tea Table at Park Mansions, plans
to retain the quaint, old Flury’s-style place and add to its munch
menu as well. `We are looking at the possibility of pushing back
closing time till 10 pm to begin with, to give people the option of a
late-evening sip and bite,’ smiled Paul.

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