When you think of Lucknow, there is always an image deeply fixed in the city’s quintessential identity, surrounding its cuisine, culture and craftsmanship. Today, when an outsider steps into the city, that image of old-world Lucknow sits alongside a growing landscape of contemporary food and leisure spaces. Driving this shift is a mix of Gen Z and young millennial entrepreneurs who are not looking to replace the city’s established food culture, but to add more of their vibe to it. Over the last few years, they have been putting their own spin on cafes, craft coffee culture, desserts, international cuisines, small-plate menus and social dining, slowly changing the city’s dastarkhwan and bringing a new mojo to the way Lucknow eats, socialises and spends its time.When Lalbagh got a Gen Z MakeoverIn Lalbagh, childhood friends Abhigyan (28) and Garvit (27) opened Crude, a vibrant dessert café run entirely by a crew in their 20s. After studying hospitality in London, the duo returned home to experiment with new-age quick-service restaurant concepts. “When we returned to Lucknow, we felt there was room to experiment, so we took a risk and introduced something different. Our cafe is a premium QSR serving fresh desserts, with a special Tres Leches based on my mother’s recipes, along with speciality coffee and a contemporary mithai collection. We also brought in canned coffee and arcade games to make the experience more interactive for young Lucknowwallas,” says founder Abhigyan. While initially designed for Gen Z, the café’s bold blue-and-yellow aesthetic has drawn cross-generational crowds,” says Garvit.
Garvit Shrivastava & Abhigyan Mukherji
Nawabi hospitality in pop-culture packagesVenuka, a pastry chef and entrepreneur in her late 20s who moved from Bengaluru to Lucknow during the pandemic, started a theme-based supper club last year. “While the city has always had a strong culture of hosting, there was room for a more contemporary format that could bring people together. We started with cuisine-based themes and later moved into pop-culture suppers inspired by sitcoms like Friends and Harry Potter, with everything from Joey’s Pizza to Butterbeer on the menu. From the decor to the games, everything is curated to make people interact and build a community. In many ways, it also echoes Lucknow’s age-old culture of socialising over heavily loaded dastarkhwans.”For Venuka, the appeal lies in the experience as much as the food. “Lucknow is increasingly willing to spend on curated food experiences, and that is changing the way the city is socialising these days.”
A glimpse of Venuka, founder of Yours Breadly Supper Club, curating the supper plates
Lucknow’s leisure culture goes intensionalTaking the idea of social hubs a step further, seven childhood friends-turned-business partners, all in their late 20s, Raghav Chawla, Arjun Verma, Rahul Bajaj, Saksham Bhatia, Kavan Arora, Anjuri Tandon and Raghav Shrivastava, created The Racquet Club in Gomti Nagar, bringing sport, wellness, food and socialising under one roof, along with the pet-friendly cafe Slab. “Lucknowites today want to spend their time more intentionally rather than simply going out for dinner on weekends. With more young professionals and first-time founders in the city, people are looking for more than a meal out. They want fitness, sport, good coffee and community. We wanted to create a space where you could play paddle, grab a matcha, meet people or join group wellness activities like Pilates. We didn’t want it to be a Gen Z-only place, but we definitely built it around how people our age actually like to spend time.Today, the club has over 900 members across all age groups. It is also pet-friendly because our generation just cannot do without our pets, and the city doesn’t have many spaces like this,” says Raghav Shrivastava.
Raghav, Arjun, Rahul, Saksham, Kavan and Raghav, creators of The Racquet Club
Ganjing now has Gelato too on the list!In Hazratganj, siblings Richa and Shubham have brought artisanal gelato to a part of Lucknow long associated with its old-world character. Located next to the Indian Coffee House, Mio Marito Gelato serves Italian-style gelato, fresh sorbets, speciality coffee and affogatos. Richa, who previously worked as an AI automation consultant, travelled across different parts of the world and picked up food experiences along the way. “Lucknow has always had a strong food culture and people here know and appreciate good, ingredient-led food. The café sits inside an old building, and Hazratganj has this beautiful mix of European and Anglo-Indian influences, with an old-world charm that still feels very alive. We see older generations coming in and enjoying newer flavours, while younger people are finding new reasons to spend time here. Ganjing is also evolving, and young people are finding their own ways to connect with the city. We wanted a space within an old setting where both generations can feel at home,” says Richa.
Richa, founder of Mia Marito in Ganj, serving artisanal gelato
Cafes, but with the personality of new LucknowSisters Divya, 25, a graphic designer, and Khushi, 23, a pastry chef, brought their creative backgrounds together to open Brekka, a minimalist café reflecting the changing tastes of Lucknow’s younger generation. “With so much pressure to compete and stay productive, people also need places to slow down. For Gen Z, a cafe is about more than food and coffee, but they want to know what they are consuming, where it comes from and how it is made. The aesthetics, music and small details matter because a space can have a personality of its own,” says Khushi.There is a growing appetite for contemporary and artisanal experiences. Sourdough, croissants and speciality coffee are finding their place alongside traditional flavours. The younger generation can grab a matcha and then go eat nihari— Divya sees the same shift in Lucknow’s food culture
Khushi and Divya, founders of Brekka
Carly Marisa Kissinger and Adam Kissinger, Over Flow
Speciality coffee surge takes rootYoung couple Carly Marisa Kissinger and her husband, Adam Kissinger, both SCA-certified professional baristas from the US, moved to Lucknow in 2021 and opened Overflow, an artisanal coffee space. Before settling here, the couple learned Hindi and travelled across Jaipur, Udaipur, Delhi and Bengaluru while exploring where to build their life and business. “While researching different cities, Lucknow stood out because it had such a strong traditional identity but we could also see a new lifestyle culture emerging. People here take their time with food, conversations and experiences. That slower rhythm made us feel there would be room for speciality coffee too,” says Carly. “There are many young entrepreneurs and professionals who moved back to Lucknow, who were looking for work from cafe spaces which also serve premium coffee experiences. Alongside speciality brews, there is a coffee community in Lucknow who wants to know about the beans, brewing methods and participates in coffee tasting sessions and workshops,” says Adam.–Amina Ashraf
