Of Coffee, Community and Collaborations | The story of Cafe Earnest

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“I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them.”

― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

In the heart of Pink City’s culinary hub, C-Scheme is a café that takes its inspiration from the famous Irish poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde and is aptly called ‘Café Earnest’. Right outside the entrance is a charming, little board that displays different quotes from Wilde’s popular comedy fiction, ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. As one enters the café, an evocative portrait of Wilde is almost impossible to miss. The man behind this piece of art is also the brain, heart and soul behind Café Earnest. Skand wanted to study design and animation but because he could not get into his preferred college, he ended up studying English literature. He taught literature too for around a year and a half and realized it was not his cup of tea.

During the pandemic induced lockdown, Skand spent most of his time learning about specialty coffee and brewing it himself. This fascination with coffee led him to brew coffee and run the operations of a café in Vaishali Nagar for around two years. And for him, the next obvious step was moving to C-scheme and opening a space that is a reflection of his persona. “C-Scheme is a historic place in becoming with a sort of a culinary revolution in place. I wanted to be a part of this culinary transformation of this city. Café Earnest is my way of bringing everything I like together under one roof. I love making music, photography, art, literature, coffee and food and in this space I have tried to weave everything together.”

Culture, Community and Collaboration

Be it the art and the photographs on the wall, the books and antiques on the book shelf and even the music has either been created or chosen by Skand. “Being an artist myself, more than anything I wanted to create a community that perceives Café Earnest as a space for collaboration and participation. It is designed for anyone who loves a peaceful haven to enjoy music, art, literature, or even work, or to just sit back and relax”, shares Skand.

As a maiden step towards achieving this spirit of community and collaboration, Earnest recently started its own book club to meet fellow book lovers over coffee and books. “As the first exercise, each attendee brought a book they love and made a case for why it should be in the Earnest book shelf. The book that won the vote of majority was bought by the café and placed in the book shelf”, tells Skand. The book club now meets every Sunday.

Cafés have also become popular co-working spaces for those who do not like working from home or an office. “At Earnest, co-working does not stop at plug points and wifi but also extends to the general vibe of the place which is designed to facilitate anything that requires calm and peace”, tells Skand. The café is also open for other artists to display their work.

Best of brews and eats

Earnest is also a great option for someone who likes to experiment and try different coffees from roasters across India. “We want to offer varieties of coffee and an array of roasting profiles from a host of different roasters. When it comes to food, the objective is to serve healthy, unadulterated and fresh food with a global appeal. We try to use everything prepared in-house. The most basic and classic dishes made using an authentic and traditional approach and not just to appeal to the local palate is our main idea”, elaborates Skand.

Must Try: Neapolitan pizzas, Rachel Salad, Chocolate brownies, Pumpkin hot bread, Brazilian lemonade, Lemon sparrow and specialty coffees.