As you walk through the bustling streets of Connaught Place, you get a whiff of baked goods, you can see people waiting in queues to grab their favourite pieces from the iconic Wenger’s bakery. The oldest bakery in the country situated at the heart of the nation’s capital is a favourite of every Delhite. Atul Tandon has taken the helm of the business at present and his contribution has been monumental in keeping the legacy business alive and running.
Beginning of baked goods at Wenger’s
A Swiss couple with the same name Wenger founded the bakery in 1926, according to manager Charanjeet Singh, who has been with the business since 1965. It was the first bakery in Delhi to provide Swiss chocolates and margarine cakes, and it was created by British architect Sir Robert Tor Russell.
When Connaught Place was finished in 1933, Wenger’s was well known as a citywide gathering place. People made reservations in advance because it used to function more like a restaurant in its early years. Wenger’s was formerly a tearoom and confectionary with Rendezvous (the café), La Mer (the ballroom), and Green Shop (the party shop) sprawled across two storeys. Wenger’s used to close its doors for the summer and relocate to Shimla, however, the manner of the British who were in charge of India at the time.
Wenger’s stands in the A-block in Connaught Place, which is now Rajiv Chowk, and was decidedly European. According to Mr. Singh, the bakery’s lobby featured columns and 20-foot ceilings. The neo-Georgian design of the restaurant was enhanced by expansive verandas.
Clientele was historically predominately British because its pastries and other goods were out of reach for the majority. The first selection was limited to four flavours of margarine pastries—chocolate, pineapple, vanilla, and strawberry—three sorts of bread (French, white, and “twist”), and basic sponge cake. The restaurant’s Swiss owners added more selections to their menu as a result of its rising popularity: Swiss chocolates, chocolate cookies, chicken patties, and vegetable patties.
The Tandon family took over Wenger’s
The Swiss couple sold Wenger’s to B.M. Tandon, a worker at the bakery, in 1945, just a few years before India gained independence. The Tandon family, who now dwell in New Delhi’s Greater Kailash-I and Sunder Nagar, formerly called Daryaganj home. They happened to wind up with a patisserie in the European style by accident. Brij Mohan Tandon, who was born in Chandni Chowk, had the good fortune to have a job as general manager at Wenger’s, where he had a great rapport with the establishment’s childless owners, who sold their property to him.
Few stores were present on Connaught Place in the 1960s, according to Atul Tandon, Mr. Tandon’s grandson and current proprietor of the bakery. While many of the oldest bakeries in the city have closed or been sold numerous times, “not much has changed in Wenger’s,” as per The Wall Street Journal report.
Wenger’s, however, rapidly lost both its size and its reputation as the city’s British citizens immigrated elsewhere and New Delhi’s dining scene grew more diverse.
Its large ballroom had lost a lot of its attractiveness and was no longer practical after Independence. Wenger’s increasingly changed its emphasis to catering in the 1960s. Foreign embassies, Indian diplomats, and even the President’s office, which routinely ordered Indian sweets, Swiss chocolates, and pastries from the shop, were among the dignitaries who remained its target clientele.
Wenger’s changed from a restaurant to one of Connaught’s Place’s smaller stores after its restaurant closed in 1979. The enormous ballroom and two dining rooms on the first floor were divided up and rented out to other stores.
After 1979, when its restaurant closed, Wenger’s became one of Connaught’s Place smaller shops but the love of Delhites for this oldest bakery persisted. In 2011, they started a new venture called Wengers Deli to serve deli-style food to the general public. Customers and employees alike have given the new location a positive reception.
Wenger’s is more than just a bakery, it is a place intertwined with nostalgia and emotions for every Delhite.
