A safe haven
Pritam Restaurant and Bar (established: 1942)

The original signage of Pritam Restaurant and Bar

The cries of the Quit India Movement were ringing in the air, when Sardar Prahlad Singh Kohli, a young dry fruits trader from Rawalpindi, was setting up the Pritam Punjab Hindu Hotel — a name that is still synonymous with Dadar today. With the Dadar tram terminus barely 50 metres away, a General Post Office in the vicinity and arterial access to trains, trams, buses and horse-drawn carriages, Pritam was in the middle of a transport hub. Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, the third-generation restaurateur from the family, fondly known as Gogi, recounts, “Dadar was a nodal centre, from where anybody could easily enter or exit the city, or head anywhere else in Mumbai. And Pritam was the only eatery open throughout the day. So, it naturally served as a meeting place for freedom fighters.”