Affogato Coffee & Gelato Shop in Mumabi by Kaviar Collaborative.

Creamy, oozy and lip-smackingly refreshing, affogatos are a renowned dessert. In the heart of one of Mumbai’s many trendy and vibrant districts lives a 55-square-metre shop dedicated to providing a unique experience. Designed by Mumbai-based architects, Kaviar Collaborative, Affogato Coffee & Gelato Shop celebrates the everyday ingredients that go into making the perfect affogato.

The interior appears as what’s left in the box once all the ice cream gets scooped out. A textural coffee-tinted brown concrete wraps every surface—walls, ceilings, floors and furniture. It resembles the creamy texture and swirls of syrup that run through it. Rounded edges are everywhere, resembling the remnant ice cream left behind by the scoop. The space seems to shrink you down to feel like you’re Alice in Wonderland… that is, a wonderland inside a box of coffee ice cream.

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It all starts from the busy streets of Mumbai, where a landscape of white crushed rock creates a sparse buffer zone from the city. Void of many features, this front courtyard is a welcome palette cleanse from the heavily built metropolitan jungle. A series of sweeping stairs invite you to descend down into the belly of the shop by stepping on what feels like the ripples left behind by an ice cream scoop. Inside, the shop is a landscape of sweeping forms, creating moments to sit and enjoy a dessert alone, gather with friends over a cup of ice cream or stand while throwing back a shot of espresso before jetting off to a busy day.

Affogato Coffee & Gelato shop carries the atmosphere of an earthy cave, not dissimilar to the Kanheri Caves you would find in the heart of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, just half an hour away. It feels like a relic that’s been carved out of a monolithic stone but also embodies a contemporary spirit.

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Exploring the idea of the shop “being disguised as a subterranean art gallery” was where Kaviar Collaborative architects, Kasturi Wagh and Vineet Hingorani, claim it all began. “Upon our first visit to the site, our minds immediately raced back to our time in New York spent visiting small private art galleries in the bylanes of Lower East Manhattan,” the duo explains.

Much like a sculpture is displayed atop a plinth in a gallery, the exhibited subject here is gelato. Kaviar Collaborative wanted “the wide range of gelato and coffee to take centre stage”, placing them atop a series of stone blocks. “We believed in dealing with the constituents of affogato as pieces of art rather than just everyday consumables”, they say. It’s fair to say they’ve crafted a space that celebrates exactly that.

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[Images courtesy of Kaviar Collaborative. Photography by Syam Sreesylam.]