Madras Kaapi has garnered a bountiful following from the authentic flavours of their drinks

By: Nanthana Balachandran

In a diasporic city like Toronto, people are constantly longing for home and a sense of belonging. For Shilpa Kotamarthi, this yearning drove the creation of Madras Kaapi, a newly opened coffee house in the heart of the city.

The South Asian café—whose name derives from the Tamil word for coffee, Kaapi—has become a love letter to authentic South Indian kaapi for Toronto residents. The coffee house holds a nostalgic quality and bridges people of all backgrounds to the importance of culture and, of course, coffee.

“It takes me closer to home and filtered coffee, which you don’t get anywhere else,” said South-Indian first-time customer Ashish Miglani. 

Miglani, sitting with his cup of kaapi, opened up about sharing cultures and how the success of Madras Kaapi brings a new variance to the coffee scene in the city.

“In a multicultural environment, the best part is that you can go and taste, or see, feel different cultures in the same city, and this is an important spot to bring [a] multicultural vibe to the city and make them taste a different kind of coffee,” he said.

The success of the coffee house has brought many South Asians, like Miglani, a place they can come to when they’re missing a little taste of home.

“It’s made in a much more specific way,” said customer Saman Hamid. “When I miss being in Pakistan, or like being at home…that’s where I come here and have a little cup.” 

Madras Kaapi came about when owner, Kotamarthi, along with her husband, Aditya Srivathsan, discovered the absence of South Indian kaapi in Canada after moving from South India in the early 2000s.

“We kept looking for it in Montreal… and we didn’t find any, and we tried finding filtered coffee online and there was no company that was sourcing filtered coffee or making filtered coffee,” Kotamarthi said. “We were like this is sad because people should know the joy of drinking kaapi.”

“Strictly based on hope, we opened the café.”

Since starting as an online business in 2016, the couple later relocated to Toronto from Montreal for Srivathsan’s work. Kotamarthi then began her entrepreneurial pursuit after quitting her job as a product manager.

“I had a lot more time and I wanted to take that time to focus on Madras Kaapi because I saw the potential… as soon as we moved here, there were a lot of people who started following us because the huge South Asian culture here,” Kotamarthi said.

The business gained a passionate following through its pop-ups at Kensington Market, where people from all over the province would come to get a taste of the classic coffee. Kotamarthi recalled having a customer who came from Ottawa to see the pop-up, proving to them that their love for the drink was not as uncommon as they thought. 

“That did it, that meant something,” she said. “Strictly based on hope, we opened the café.”

She noted how coming from a background in tech, making coffee was something the couple had never thought of doing. However, since starting the business, they’ve worked directly with farms in the Palani region of Tamil Nadu, sourced beans and learned how to roast the authentic, traditional coffee.

Harika Konisetti, a South Indian employee who’s been working since the café’s conception, emphasized how important representation is, showcasing an alternative to the city’s predominantly western-styled coffee. Konisetti said the space’s menu created a subliminal invitation of return. She often saw new and curious customers who had never tried this type of coffee give it a shot and keep coming back.

Coffee is a tender— and perfected—staple in diasporic homes too, Konisetti notes. “We do have really good coffee over there.”

Being one of the first of its kind, Madras Kaapi has now helped other businesses, specifically South Asian-owned businesses, grow.

“I feel really good about that because it’s not just us, we’re also helping promote other businesses as well,” Kotamarthi said.

At the root of  Madras Kaapi’s growth, the owner says, is the representation of culture and sharing the love for South Indian coffee with all people in Toronto.

“We’re able to reach out to everybody and that was the idea of doing this because we want to spread the joy of coffee.”