Rayar's mess

Rayar's Mess is a small, crowded room with weathered wooden benches and a simple menu written on a chalkboard. It began in the nineteen thirties when a man named Rayar started selling coffee and snacks from a small cart nearby. He eventually moved into this brick building, keeping the same recipes for idli and pongal that he served on the street. Devotees of the place still squeeze onto the wooden benches at sunrise, waiting for the kitchen to open its heavy metal shutters.