Mumbai: 

The newly painted Cafe Mondegar Pic/ Atul Kamble

Patrons of Café Mondegar may have been gasping in shock over the last few weeks to see their favourite murals at the restaurant whitewashed over. They needn't fear the café, say owners, is having a facelift of kinds and is slated to bring back the same murals, only brighter and with cooler surroundings.

Work is currently underway to restore the 18-year-old murals that are the work of Goan cartoonist Mario Miranda. "The murals are an integral part of the café's identity and so we have three artists from Miranda's own team restoring the artwork. The murals were painted in 1990 and retouched in 2000, but because of the increased construction work outside the café in the last few years, the paintings got duller and parts even began to peel off," says managing partner Hoshang Yazdegardi.

Part of the work on the walls are already completed in black and white and colour will be added last to the paintings that are much cherished by patrons for its amusing depiction of the lives of Mumbai residents and tourists.

However the overhaul isn't going to be intensely dramatic. "We don't want people to think that the restaurant's going to change entirely. We're just making it a little more comfortable for our customers by installing air conditioning to partly cool the place," said Yazdegardi.

Café Mondegar was started in the early 1900s and the insistence of the owners to keep things simple is a choice determined by what their loyal customers want. However, with many old restaurants in the city giving way to swanky pubs, is Mondegar's facelift a move to usher in a new swish set? Quite the opposite, they insist.

 "We love having our old patrons tell us about how they used to enjoy eating mutton samosas, drink Duke's lemonade and raspberry and listen to the Rowe-Ami jukebox. Also none of the signature features of our Irani establishment are going to go. The wooden chairs, the glass tabletops and checkered tablecloths they're all still a big part of Mondy's. It's hard to put it in words, but we just want the institution to continue as it was and that's what we feel that our customers want too," says Yazdegardi.