EPICURIOUS: A TALE TWO CAPRIS.

Just as you turn left from Liberty Chowk towards Liberty Market in Lahore, you have Capri Restaurant to your left, just across the road from the now defunct Capri Cinema in Gulberg III. But while the movie theatre of the same name has closed its doors and brought down the curtain for good on its screen, the restaurant continues to thrive, due to booming business during breakfast, lunch and dinner hours.

So which came first, Capri Restaurant or Capri Cinema? Your guess is as good as mine. Both have weathered the ravages of time and have stamped indelible memories on the generations that have since come and gone, with the restaurant eventually faring better than the movie theatre, and passing the litmus test.

I was first ushered to Capri Restaurant in the very early 2000s by a very dear friend who was passionate about the Lahore cityscape and its many vintage eateries. He has since passed away.

I could clearly see the sparkle in his eyes as he led me inside the decades-old restaurant and ordered the choicest of items from the menu, then continued to wait patiently for our order to arrive.

Capri Cinema located just across the road from Capri Restaurant

It was, of course, before the boom of social media. Had it happened recently, we would have had loads of digital media such as photos, videos and hashtags to share.

The old world charm of Capri Restaurant and the now defunct Capri Cinema in Gulberg evoke fond memories of an era long gone, but the restaurant still allows you cherish and relive nostalgia even today

Capri Restaurant was established over half a century ago, in 1970, by the same management whose next generation continues to run it at present. The menu boasts of the standard breakfast fare of bakray kay payee (curried mutton trotters), nihari, qeema, maghaz (stir-fried goat's brain), halwa puri with both hot and cold beverages such as sweet and salty lassi...