When you visit Lento, a 2,200 sq ft cafe in Pune, returning becomes inevitable. Perhaps it is the misty sight and sound of the rain or the shimmering sun rays, both, which spill indoors through the cast iron balcony frame and large glass windows, like a fleeting performance of nature itself. For those in the know, Lento first opened in North Goa’s Saligao last year. Designed by The Busride Studio’s Ayaz Basrai, he imagined the cafe to be seemingly born out of earth, with walls and ceiling wrapped defiantly with creepers, mimicking the wild vines that often take over old, abandoned houses.
When the time ripened for another Lento to open in Pune’s Koregaon Park, Faizaan Khatri of FK’D Workshop took it on himself to continue Lento Goa’s sensorial act of nature indoors, touched by Pune’s local cues of architecture, verandahs and wadas. “Today, we’re surrounded by spaces that are visually competent but emotionally interchangeable.” There is much reality to these words by Faizaan, at a time when community-led spaces including cafes and restaurants, must design experiences that exist beyond ‘now’, giving people a reason to linger, remember and return. That’s where Lento began to build itself, founded by Dishant Pritamani of Luna Hospitality.
