A month into opening, this Kandivali café reveals what happens when design, food, and intent move at the same pace
Viraj Ghelani and his wife Palak Khimavat started Slow in Kandivali to bring a good cafe experience, closer to home. It’s their gift to the neighbourhood. Pics/Satej ShindeE
The more we see, the more we are convinced that Gen Z’s growing attachment to slowness isn’t nostalgia; it’s choice. It’s about reclaiming time, valuing craft, and gravitating towards experiences that feel thoughtful rather than transactional. This shift is visible at Slow, the café by Viraj Ghelani and Palak Khimavat in Kandivali, where the mood mirrors the mindset. At the entrance of this pet-friendly cafe, Khimavat’s dogs, Cortado and Moka, greet us briefly before settling into their favourite corners, entirely unbothered by people’s comings and goings.
Set in Mahavir Nagar, away from the city’s noisier café clusters, Slow feels like a deliberate pause. The design encourages ease — soft light, books on the shelves, open sightlines, — nothing here pushes urgency. Coffee is brewed with intention, food is familiar without being dull, and conversations unfold without interruption. No visual overload, no menu theatrics, no pressure to perform for the camera.
Chocolate cheesecake
What makes Slow resonate is its clarity. In doing so, the café quietly offers a blueprint for anyone dreaming of opening their own space.
Here are a few lessons you can pick up:
Viraj Ghelani and Palak Khimavat’s pet-friendly cafe in Kandivali encourages you to slow down in the fast paced life
Lesson No. 1
Listen to instinct, not noise
After shutting down her earlier café during COVID 19, Khimavat spent nearly three years running a bakery from home, initially with plans to simply expand it. “But once I started looking seriously at spaces, I realised I didn’t want a bigger bakery. I wanted a place where I could feed people properly. That’s the real joy for me,” she says.
Both founders were instinctively aligned on food — fresh produce, no frozen shortcuts, no processed clutter. Ghelani recalls the frustration of constantly travelling to Bandra or Versova for a good café experience. “When you looked at the cars parked outside those cafés, half of them had the same area codes as ours. People were already making that journey; we just wanted to bring that experience closer home,” Khimavat adds.
The couple was clear about the kind of space they wanted — multi-level, distinct zones, room to breathe. When that proved unrealistic in Kandivali, they turned to commercial shops, only to find them expensive, uninspiring, and lacking soul. “We were ready to spend, but nothing felt right,” Khimavat says. Then they found a space they loved: open, with a large verandah, and crucially, away from the city’s loud food hubs. The owners were supportive and flexible. The society, however, was not. “The objections made no sense — from worries about people smoking to being told that as a woman, I should open a beauty parlour instead of a café, made me question the kind of society we live in,” Khimavat recalls. “Then at some point, you realise you can’t reason with people who don’t want to understand. So we walked away.”
In hindsight, it was the first real test of conviction — and the first reminder that building something honest often means ignoring the most confident voices telling you to do something safer.
Lesson No 2:
Focus on the design
Being an architect herself made the spatial conversation instinctive. The café was designed by Khimavat’s sister-in-law, but the brief didn’t need translation. “She gets me,” says Khimavat simply. “She knew exactly how I wanted the space to feel — open, calm, layered, and functional without being over-designed. The focus was always on flow: how people move, where they pause, how light enters, and how food and conversation coexist. Because of that shared language, the process felt collaborative rather than consultative. It wasn’t about imposing an aesthetic but shaping an experience — one that felt easy, lived-in, and welcoming.” That architectural grounding also shaped practical decisions: the verandah, the separation of zones, the openness without chaos. It’s why the café feels intentional without feeling tight.
Lesson No 3
Don’t bring in the ego
Viraj Ghelani and Palak Khimavat’s pet-friendly cafe in Kandivali encourages you to slow down in the fast paced life
Since Ghelani is more famous, the café is often associated more with his name. “Honestly, it’s never bothered me. I didn’t do this for validation or visibility. We both know how much work has gone into this. There are no ego battles here,” says Khimavat.
This phase of building slowly also coincided with a lot personally — marriage, work commitments, and Ghelani losing his grandmother. “But we live in Mumbai. Life doesn’t stop. You grieve, you pause, and then you show up again because responsibilities don’t disappear. I don’t carry regret. She lived fully, happily, and saw us settled. That matters,” he adds.
Lesson no 4
Respect your staff
The first few days when they opened, it was chaos. “The good kind and the hard kind,” clarifies Ghelani. “We were understaffed, overwhelmed, and unprepared for the volume. Friends, family, siblings — everyone stepped in. The first day, we served nearly 750 people with seating for 40. Since then, weekends have meant hour-long waits, mixed reviews, and the occasional entitlement. If there’s an issue with food, that’s on us. But waiting because the place is full isn’t a service failure — it’s logistics,” says Ghelani.
“What I’m firm about is this: the team comes first. Our staff works long hours, runs multiple floors, and shows up every day. That’s why we’re closed one day a week. The café runs on people, not optics. Burn them out, and everything collapses,” says Khimavat.
Lesson No 5
Lock the right blend
In the middle of finalising their coffee roaster in Mumbai, Khimavat travelled to Ahmedabad to meet Ghelani, who was shooting there at the time. With a day to herself, she went café-hopping—and walked into Coffeeverse. A conversation with owner Shikhar Pattani led to an impromptu tasting session.
“I instantly connected with Dhruv, their roaster, who’s also a National AeroPress Champion,” says Khimavat. “We spoke the same language when it came to flavour, balance, and intention.” The alignment was immediate, and the team began working on custom blends for the café, including a special rose profile. Ten days later, the final samples arrived—and were unanimously approved. “Thankfully, our barista Sahil loved them too,” she adds. Around the same time, the couple also finalised a matcha brand from Ahmedabad.
Iced matcha latte
Lesson No 6
Expand, but with a thought
People keep asking them about expansion, but their answer is steady and unhurried. “We’re rooted in Kandivali. We want people to come here,” they say. People come from Bandra and Juhu; sometimes just for a coffee. “If someone is willing to travel to visit the cafe, it means something is working.”
There are ideas, of course. A roastery, someday. Maybe a second space — but not in Mumbai. And never a copy-paste. “If we ever open elsewhere, it has to feel like its own place. Same thinking, different expression. Like Naturals,” they say, smiling. “That’s one brand that’s stayed honest. We want to do the same.”
Mushroom Tagiatelle
Lesson No 7
Focus on what matter
Food-wise, the couple wanted to experiment different cuisines but within the realm of comfort. The menu is intentionally limited. There are elevated flavours, but no extreme fusion or unnecessary drama. “Big, ten-page café menus intimidate me. Give me twenty pages, and I shut down. Everything on our menu is food I cook at home for dinner: familiar, comforting, and something you can keep returning to. We already have repeat customers. Someone suggested truffle fries. I refused. If we ever do truffles, it’ll be fresh truffles in a pasta when we’re ready. There will be no truffle oil in this kitchen. Ninety-nine per cent of it is oil and synthetic flavouring. I’ve read enough to know it’s rubbish. Shortcuts like that don’t belong here.”
What they are building is simple food, done honestly. Comfort that doesn’t get boring. A place you don’t have to overthink — just come, eat, and want to come back again. There is a bakery on the top floor where the desserts, cheesecakes, and patisserie drawn directly from her earlier venture find home. Bread, for now, is outsourced, though they have begun in-house trials
“At the end of the day, food has always been our anchor for celebration, for comfort, for connection. That’s the ideology here. Consistency matters more than hype. We’d rather serve the same quality on Day 300 as on Day one. Everything else is just noise,” Ghelani sign off.
WHERE: Slow Cafe, 4, Mahavir Nagar, Kandivali West
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