Peshawar cosies up to new food chains

Business owners, residents attribute opening of outlets to better security situation

PESHAWAR: A group of café-goers, including some foreigners, sit at a table sipping hot cups of tea with some snacks in front of them. Around them, men and women are animatedly engrossed in discussions or busy gossiping. Others yet are preoccupied with their gadgets, chatting away at leisure.

This is a scene, which until recently, was only confined to some elite clubs or hotels in Peshawar. But thanks to the improving security situation, more food chains have sought to exploit a vacuum.



But with café’s like Chayee Khana, where the group of foreigners were having their tea, a social shift has been introduced in the social scene of the city.

Once a frontline to terrorism and the main battleground for wars in nearby lands, Peshawar and its residents are opening up to the modern café culture.

Peshawar was once called the ‘City of Flowers’ where people used to sit at the famous Qissa Khwani [story telling] bazaar and shared stories to entertain each other. Till wars and terror came calling.

Despite witnessing horrors such as the massacre of 140 schoolchildren and teachers at the Army Public School a few years ago, the city is once again like a flower in bloom, opening up its protective layer of petals to the flow of normalcy and modernity.

A slew of national and multinational food chains have started opening up shop in Peshawar. Some of these have been ported from Islamabad – a popular weekend haunt for the well-to-do citizens of the city.

Brands such as Gloria Jean’s Coffee, McDonald’s, Burger King, Chayee Khana, BBQ Tonight, China Terrace and even ice cream chain Baskin and Robbins have been welcomed with open arms.

They add to the meagre selection of food chains such as Pizza Hut, Mr Cod, and Peri Peri.

“When there are fears over the security situation, no one comes out to visit food outlets,” Rashid Abbasi, the manager of Chayee Khana’s Peshawar branch, told The Express Tribune.



He added that the number of food outlets opening up in the city was a testament to the improving security situation.

“No one wants to invest in security risk areas, but businessmen will certainly come forth and invest when they are convinced that the security atmosphere is conducive,” he added.

But what really took Abbasi aback was the overwhelming response he got from the residents of Peshawar, the hall of his medium-sized establishment packed to capacity when it first opened a couple of months ago.

Asked about the types of customers frequenting his cafe, Abbasi said that they got people of all classes. From students to professionals to people from middle-class backgrounds.

The response Chayee Khana and others have received show a thirst among residents of this historic city.

“We were not even permitted by our families to venture out of our homes owing to insecurity in the city. But now we can enjoy these eateries and other spots,” Mehak Eman, who frequents new eateries along with her friends, told The Express Tribune.

Apart from reflecting the improved security situation, she added that new eateries provided a source of entertainment in a city which has few attractions apart from some parks and helped get over the depression spread by frequent terror activities in the past.



The Counter Terrorism Department of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) recently said that the province saw terror activities fall by three per cent so far this year with only 39 incidents reported during the first four months compared to 68 during the same period in 2016.

The statistics show there have been a 50 per cent decrease in improvised-explosive-device (IED) attacks, with only 11 such incidents recorded so far in 2017, as compared to 22 recorded during the same period last year.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2017.