House of Klothberg, a new cafe in Chennai, also features a boutique and an ice cream parlour

This building on Harrington Road, busy with colours and murals, houses a vegan cafe, boutique, and ice cream parlour

A blue wall with murals of cheerful sunflowers and dapper-looking girls has become an Instagrammable spot on Harrington Road.

Beyond this vibrant facade lies the House of Klothberg which is a boutique, cafe, and ice cream parlour all rolled into one. The ground floor houses clothes, shoes and accessories — made in-house and sourced from European markets. There are boots in bubblegum pink and sober white, stilletos in lime green, envelope clutches in silver, straw hats with bows and frayed edges, and outfits in varying silhouettes, colours and prints. At one end of the store is a large mural of a girl created using waste denim. “We are on our way to becoming 100% sustainable. Right now we have a lot of jute-based products, bamboo-based clothing and upcycled fabric. The Autumn ‘26 collection will have vegan leather made from pomegranate and mango-based leather,” says Rajiv Raj Jagasia, founder, House of Klothberg. Eighty per cent of the collection is made in India in factories in Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Chennai, Bengaluru, Noida and incorporate Tencels and Indian cotton, a well as natural dyes.

Rajiv studied Fashion and did his Masters at Amsterdam Fashion Institute in the Netherlands. He lived there for seven years, researching on upcycling, and eventually started Klothberg in Amsterdam. He then moved back to Chennai and started House of Klothberg this year. “While in Amsterdam, I was a vegan acivist. After coming back, I wanted to combine conscious clothing and conscious food habits,” says Rajiv.

At the House of Klothberg’s Vegan Fashion Cafe, Chef Naga Arjun is on a mission to prove that vegan food can be fun and full of flavour. Experimenting with this menu, allowed him to bring his creativity to the fore. So, when the first dish is placed in front of me, I am a little confused. It looks like avakkai, tastes like it, but after two forkfuls I realise it is avocado masquerading as avakkai. This is the avocado tartare, one of the bestsellers here. The dish gets its tartness and flavour from yuzu and alphonso puree along with shiso dressing and tapioca crisps for texture.

“It took me four months to finalise this menu. We are bringing in flavours from Japan and Peru and will keep updating the menu,” says Arjun who trained and worked in Lithuania. The cafe wants diners to know that vegan food is a lot more than just tofu and almond milk. To prove this, the next dish served is a wakame salad made with seaweed kelp, house-marinated sauce, cucumber, daikon radish and jalapeno sauce. With its many shades of green, it looks like a terrarium in a bowl and is perfectly refreshing on this balmy afternoon. While the palate is largely European and Asian, there are a few Indian touches in the form sourdough pizzas with tandoori sauce, topped with chunks of soya and jackfruit mock meat.

“We will also introduce mock meat versions of shrimps and fish,” says Rajiv.

After a hearty meal, I head for some gelato to the mezzanine level. This space is awash in pastel colours and more murals. After the usual hard decision of choosing from almost 15 flavours — raspberry sorbet, pistachio, coconut, matcha, and espresso among others, all made with almond milk — I settle for my usual dark chocolate. As far as gelatos go, this one is hard and frozen, and the first dollop strangely slides off the cone and lands on the floor. Cradling the second helping, I find a place by the large window. Tables are few but you can find seating outdoors under thatched umbrellas that give the feeling of being away on a vacation by the sea.