Gulabo & Co. is a neighbourhood café situated along Ahmedabad’s busy Commerce Main Road, occupying a decades-old mixed-use complex within a university-dominated precinct. Designed by the city-based architectural design firm Spatial Inquiry, the café is located at a prominent intersection. The site in a mixed-use building has evolved through multiple lives: first as a residence, then as a bank, and now reimagined as a café. The project responds to this layered history while serving a predominantly young clientele of students and working professionals.
Conceived by chef-partners Rishabh Singh Rana and Abhishek Bhandari, Gulabo & Co. positions itself as a contemporary Indian café shaped by a global culinary outlook. The menu draws from diverse international palates while integrating Indian sensibilities, establishing a food identity that is familiar yet exploratory.
This Cafe Within A Mixed-Use Building Draws From International Palate | Spatial Inquiry
Working within a compact footprint of a mixed-use building, the design prioritises spatial efficiency, clarity of movement, and ease of maintenance. The design retains and expresses the existing structural elements rather than concealing them, using them as key organisers that define zones and guide spatial progression. A restrained material palette and controlled lighting strategy enhance depth and legibility, resulting in a calm and evenly balanced interior atmosphere.
The planning establishes a clear functional hierarchy. At the heart of the interior, the coffee counter acts as a focal anchor, reinforcing visual orientation and directing customer movement. A newly constructed kitchen is located at the rear to optimise back-of-house operations, while the pizza oven occupies the display window facing the street. This deliberate placement allows the aroma and visual presence of the oven to engage passers-by, strengthening the café’s relationship with the public realm.
The design largely retains the residential identity of the original space and subtly allows it to inform the ambience of the café. This familiarity lends the interior a domestic ease, allowing customers to experience the act of ordering and dining with the comfort of a lived-in environment. Spatially, this approach lowers inhibitions and encourages patrons to relax and linger.
The design arranges seating areas, service counters, and support zones with precision to maximize usability within the constrained envelope. It reinterprets the space between two central structural members as a marketplace zone, displaying Gulabo & Co.’s signature food products and branded apparel. A lightweight framework of slender 12 mm square mild steel rods offsets the visual mass of the existing columns. Finished in colours aligned with the brand identity, the structure introduces visual lightness. It maintains alignment with the underlying structural grid.
A compact outdoor seating area extends the café’s spatial language beyond the interior. Deep blue surfaces frame views toward the pizza oven within, creating visual continuity while maintaining restraint. The design integrates serigraphs by artist Esther David into the interior. This adds cultural texture without letting them dominate the spatial composition.
Pomegranate Company (pomoco.in) developed the branding and packaging in close coordination with the architectural design. A distinctive chevron edge detail from the coffee cups is translated into an architectural motif. It is integrated into the interior, reinforcing coherence between brand, space, and experience.
The project demonstrates how a modest footprint and existing mixed-use structure can be transformed through disciplined planning. It shows material restraint and a careful integration of architecture and brand. Thus, resulting in a café that is efficient, legible, and contextually grounded.
Fact File
Designed by: Spatial Inquiry
Project Type: Restaurant/Café Interior Design
Project Name: Gulabo and Co.
Location: Ahmedabad
Year Built: 2025
Duration of the project: 90 Days
Project Size: 1500 Sq.ft
Principal Architects: Mudit Tikmani
Photograph Courtesy: Bhagat Odedara
Contractors: Kanha Bhai, Lala Bhai
Products / Materials / Vendors: Wallcovering / Cladding – HDHMR / Lighting – Neptune Lights / Doors and Partitions – Engineered Wood / Windows – Wooden / Furniture – Metal and Wood / Flooring – Vertified Tiles – Italica / Kitchen – Stainless Steel (SS) Equipment / Paint – Asian Paints / Artefacts – Serigraphs by Esther David, Sourced from Archer Art Gallery, Ahmedabad
Firm’s Instagram Link: Spatial Inquiry
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