A home chef in Thiruvananthapuram opens a pop-up store for the festival season

Thiruvananthapuram-based home chef Sheeba Le Fleur who runs the brand Le Fleur opens a pop-store to serve dishes specific to Ramzan, Vishu, Easter and Id-ul-adha

How about enjoying some festival specials from a pop-up store? Head to Sheeba’s La Fleur at Narmada shopping complex at Kowdiar in Thiruvananthapuram.

The store will be operational for three months covering Ramzan, Vishu, Easter and Id-ul-adha. “The Ramzan specials will be available until the festival ends with Id-ul-Fitr or cheriyaperunnal. Payasams will be available during Vishu. Traditional Easter dishes will be served around the same time followed by delicacies for Id-ul-adha or valiyaperunnal, which falls in June,” says the home chef, who has been running the brand La Fleur for 13 years.

She adds that it was her dream to start a restaurant, that too at Narmada, one of the oldest shopping complexes in the city and therefore a part of her childhood memories. “But I had to drop the plan. That was when Om Prakash, one of my customers and well-wishers told me about this space in Narmada. When I contacted them, Indulekha Raghavan, one of the directors of Narmada, put forward the idea of a pop-up store. She and Sathyajith Rajesh, also the director, helped me to launch it,” Sheeba says.

The store opens at noon, serving chicken biriyani for lunch. Two types of bread, chicken dishes, beef roast, paal kappa, snacks, etc are available in the evening besides snacks such as cutlets, samosas, and banana fritters. “Haleem is served on alternate days. It is my version of the Hyderabadi haleem,” she says.

The shop is open till 3am so that those who fast can have suhoor or sehri, the pre-dawn meal before the fasting begins. “It is usually biriyani or ghee rice with curry. Those who don’t fast also turn up to have food,” she says. Cake varieties are available on all days.

Sheeba adds that she prepares the food for 50 to 70 people only. After Ramzan, the store will function from 10am to midnight. Contact: 9995288457