Agarwaltimes - Putting the ate in your late!

We've all surfaced blearily from midnight work/ study/ party marathons and wondered who in this wide, sleeping city would give us something to sate those uncontrollable hunger pangs. Turns out, there are several options. Mrunmayi Ainapure goes on a nocturnal culinary trail.


Aate Huye

Aate Huye started out delivering sandwiches, burgers, rolls, and pastas in June last year, right when the football World Cup began. The quandary of finding food late at night, when he and his friends would be up finishing college assignments, pushed 25-year-old civil engineer Ishan Vaishampayan to dive in. "In Mumbai, you step out at any time and find something to eat — Pune lacks such 24-hour establishments, so a home-delivery service seemed like a good idea," he said. Run by two young chefs — Ahad Sheikh and Amar Fadtare — the kitchen is in Gokhale Nagar; Ishan takes care of deliveries with help from friends. If you place your order before 10:30 pm, they can also pick up groceries or cigarettes for you on the way. Minimum delivery cost increases by the kilometre. As of now, Aate Huye is only a phone service, but they'll be launching an app this month. "We started out with 2-3 orders a night, now we get no fewer than 30," beamed Ishan, who will soon expand the dessert menu and introduce shakes and juices.




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The most popular items currently are the Chicken Barbecue Sandwich (sweet-sour sauce drowning tender chicken chunks), succulent Chicken Makhmali Kebab, and Mini Brownies. There's also the Chicken Dal Khichdi (a non-veg spin on the comfort food), Crunchy Penne (pasta fried and tossed in a special Oriental sauce), and Sausage Tamasha (juicy chicken sausages cooked in butter, mayonnaise, grated cheese, oregano and a few other spices).


Burger 11

This one's caters exclusively to burger cravings — six months old now, Burger 11 was started by Himanshu Singh, a lawyer from Mumbai. He originally wanted to start a food truck, but because of legal restrictions, set up a late night kitchen instead. While he cooks, partner Siddhant Kumar manages finances and deliveries (only 8 kms around Koregaon Park). The duo wants to start pizza delivery soon.

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One burger for every meat comes with an "indispensable" slice of cheese. So, the Chicken11 packs two grilled tender chicken steaks marinated in Mediterranean and Indian spices; What The Fish has a huge Basa fillet crumb-fried and dressed in homemade tartar sauce; Buffmeister contains chunks of buffalo meat seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, onion, and more. There's a veggie burger with potatoes, spring onion, carrots, and coleslaw, a cream cheese bagel and a 'gourmet' PB&J too.


NiteFoodie

NiteFoodie, which started in 2012, was probably the first late night food service in Pune. With two kitchens (Vimannagar and Aundh) they deliver to almost all areas of the city. NiteFoodie is the brainchild of engineers Vaibhav Singh and Archit Agarwal, who — while they were still techies — were sick of finding nothing to eat every time they returned home late after a meeting with international clients. "We realised there would be many single working people like us, living alone, too tired to cook after a long day at work — a great business opportunity. We get a good response from the age bracket of 18 to 30, especially in the west side of town," said Vaibhav. They're working on a GPS tracking service to check the status of deliveries, and also plan to launch in Bangalore. NiteFoodie also delivers birthday cakes at midnight, and will soon introduce assorted cupcakes.

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While their flavourful, perfectly spiced Lazeez Murg Tikka Biryani is the most ordered item, they also whip up a Chicken Cheese Chutney Kebab, a mellow kebab oozing with soft, melted cheese and tangy green chutney. Their creamy, tangy Goan fish curry is also a hit with patrons.


KK's Day and Night Restaurant

Started in 2013, with the primary objective of catering to the palates of tourists arriving in the city late at night, KK's Day and Night home delivery service has successfully run for a good two years now. "Since restaurants attached to most hotels shut by midnight, tourists and travelers had no option besides food stalls at Pune Railway Station to get their fix. They gave our service an overwhelming response. We also get many orders from people organising late night house parties," said owner Amar Singh Yadav. KK's delivers to areas located within seven kilometres of Viman Nagar, where they have their kitchen.

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Essentially a North Indian and Chinese menu, the food you can order here falls within the category of standard cuisines most Indians are used to having regular and comfortable access to. Yadav said the Chicken Tandoori with 'Cheese-Burst' Naans is what people mostly order — the naans, especially, are rather popular with the kiddy audience. Notably, their menu is one of the vastest of the existing night food services, with plentiful typical but delicioussounding options under the generic umbrella of the two prescribed cuisines.


Arizona

It was when a regular visitor at the snooker haunt Nilesh Anand Patil originally ran once asked if he could whip up a plate of Maggi for the visiting group, that Patil first came up with the idea of a late night food service. He started out delivering food on his bicycle to the rooms of hostel students studying late at night — soon, his humble brand became a go-to for youth from all over the city, right from those studying in colleges like BMCC and Gokhale Institute, to hostelites of the Hirachand Nemchand Digambar Jain Boarding in Shivajinagar and MJV Girls' Hostel in Karvenagar. "Since students don't get a lot of pocket money, we deliver for free," said Patil.

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Arizona does all sorts of munchies like burgers, grilled sandwiches, donut, puffs, French fries, different rices, pav bhaji, and several Maggi preparations (noodles and pastas). All their dishes are also available in the Jain style of preparation, owing to a huge Jain customer base — they even do a Jain maggi, using a special onion and garlic- free masala!



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