Veranda

My choice of today's blip is a restaurant I pass on a regular basis and a popular spot for tourists to go to, as I've seen many tour busses stopped outside the venture to capture true Bahrain ambiance. There are many sections of the restaurant, so I decided to choose the gift shop area, it reminds me of what Aladdin's cave should look like. This place has great gift ideas, chocolates and variety of sweets can be decorated into beautiful baskets, handmade locally.

Sasan Kazeroini started his first venture - the Veranda Gallery Café - in 1996. Veranda is the vision of the artist Sasan Kazerooni; originally planned as a gallery to display his own handmade woodwork creations at his workshop.

Soon after that he began serving tea and coffee to his retinue of growing admirers and clients who visited his little gallery, and to his surprise he realised that they enjoyed the ambience he had lovingly created and were willing to linger longer.

Finally Sasan began to form the "Veranda" concept, using his private collections as inspiration - from various shaped bottles to rare antiques - which added a feeling of déjà vu to the project. As more people kept patronizing Veranda, Sasan began to add a variety of drinks and sandwiches to the menu. What started with four tables kept growing to accommodate the ever increasing number of visitors, and thus the little café begun to take shape.

Soon the little cafe was a tremendous success; Sasan created a terrace and garden area and began serving Shisha (Arab Leisure), and so the natural transition from gallery to café took place. The café grew into a full-scale restaurant over 13 years - a compilation of themes in different rooms creating one unique concept.