The founders of Pune’s tea atelier ‘Bai Mu Dan’ have turned their side project into a full-fledged destination. Dinshay Luthiya and Oormi Rohra have opened ‘Loafers at Heart’, a new cafe in Kalyani Nagar built on a simple but ambitious idea: that exceptional bread should be part of daily life, not a special-occasion indulgence.
What began as a cloud kitchen operating in parallel with Bai Mu Dan quickly outgrew its space. Customers kept returning for the loaves. The kitchen could no longer keep up. That demand prompted the pair to commit fully to bread and to reimagine how it is made, sold and experienced in India.
“Good bread in India has been treated like it’s special occasion food,” Luthiya and Rohra say. “We want it to be Tuesday food.” Their goal is less about spectacle and more abouthabitto shift what Pune expects from a loaf through consistency, transparency and craft.
Every loaf at Loafers at Heart is made in-house daily using slow, long-fermentation methods. The founders areself-taught — no culinary degrees, no formal apprenticeships — butyears of travelling, eating across Europe and the US, and methodical trial and error in their own kitchen.
Single-origin wheat varieties used
Ingredients are treated with the same rigour. All flour is sourced from Three One Farms in Punjab, where single-origin wheat varieties are cultivated for flavour and traceability. It is a level of provenance more commonly associated with coffee or wine, and, according to the founders, it makes a measurable difference in aroma, texture, and taste.
Every loaf at Loafers at Heart is made in-house daily using slow, long-fermentation methods. (Express Photo/Special Arrangement)
The signature offering reflects that philosophy. The Multigrain Seeded Sourdough Sandwich Loaf is made with whole-grain flours and a heavy mix of seeds. It bakes to a crust that cracks audibly, enclosing a moist, springy crumb with pronounced grain character. Other daily offerings include a 24-hour fermented focaccia, avocado flatbread, truffle mushroom pizzette, potato and leek pizzette, double-baked almond croissant, and blueberry French toast.
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With Loafers at Heart, Luthiya and Rohra are betting that Pune is ready for bread made to global standards but served without pretense, daily, local, and built to be returned to. (Express Photo/Special Arrangement)
Beyond the menu, the space itself communicates intent. Designed by Rohra through her studio, Loafers at Heart is intentionally lived-in rather than staged. There is mismatched furniture collected over time, a broken-tile mosaic floor, and pressed metal ceiling tiles. A vintage medicine cabinet holds 42 small ceramic breads made in collaboration with Pune ceramist Parth Palsay, an index of the diversity of bread as a form.
Bicycle delivery within 2-km radius
Other details reinforce the neighbourhood-first ethos. A “Letter Room” with a writing desk encourages guests to write actual letters. A backyard with a fireplace and a long table sits under an acrylic roof that floods the space with afternoon light and turns candlelit in the evening. Bread can be bought at the counter, pre-ordered, or delivered by bicycle within a 2-kilometre radius through a subscription model, an attempt to make fresh bread arrive as routinely as milk or the morning paper.
Half Baked by Bai Mu
Tucked into one corner is Half Baked by Bai Mu Dan, a deliberately unfinished area where the original tea atelier now operates inside the bakery. It serves as both an experiment and a nod to where the founders started.
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The broader ambition is accessibility without compromise. “Anybody, anytime, can walk in and feel at home,” the founders repeat. That means no reservations, no complicated menus, and pricing that does not require calculation before ordering.
With Loafers at Heart, Luthiya and Rohra are betting that Pune is ready for bread made to global standards but served without pretense, daily, local, and built to be returned to.
(Kalyani Lad is an intern with The Indian Express)
