Curtains Up

Whether you decide to treat it as a restaurant or a mini movie theatre is your call. Up a narrow flight of steps,it’s only after a while that Iron Curtain’s secret is revealed. Behind a heavy iron door is a small room,complete with an almost six-feet-high screen,15 cushy chairs in red,and the works. Clearly,the restaurant’s USP — this strictly non-commercial private screening space — shows films by upcoming filmmakers from time to time (they don’t have a fixed schedule yet) without charging its customers a dime — something they make up for, we later discovered,in their overpriced menu.

Luckily for us,we arrived at Iron Curtain on a day when short-film club Shamiana was going to screen seven films. The screening area,with stripes of red light,has a certain futuristic vibe to it. Once seated,a server comes in with a glass of water and the menu. The menu is a list of typically American comfort foods — burgers,pizzas and sandwiches — with buttered popcorn (in sync with the movie theatre set-up) as the first item. We skip the popcorn and order a glass of cold coffee. Extremely bitter and priced at Rs 150,the coffee was a mood dampener. We chose to concentrate on the film instead,which had just begun. The short films being screened were either by independent production houses or independent filmmakers (Nitin Das,Arjun Rihan etc).

Next up was the BBQ Chicken Pizza. Served on a rectangular platter,the pizza,meaty with a thin crust,was decent in size and taste. The only drawback of this otherwise enjoyable dining-cum-viewing experience was the discomfort of keeping the heavy platter on your lap (there’s no other conceivable place to put it on) — eat and watch the movie at the same time. Excuse that and also the disconcerting sound of your neighbours crunching on their pizzas or gulping down their soft drinks.

Post the screening,we decided to shift outside for the last course — the dessert. The Black and White Cake was absolutely amazing. A thin slice of striped marble cake,sprinkled with icing sugar and topped with frothy cream — every bite was a spoonful of heaven. The dessert,the saving grace of the day,is apparently inspired by the one at Elma’s Bakery (which is run by the same people as Iron Curtain). Was it enough to salvage the entire food experience?

Clearly,if the owners of Iron Curtain want to set it apart,discerning cinematic curation is something they’ll need to fall back on.

Meal for two: Rs. 1,000 (including taxes,excluding alcohol)

Contact: 64781709