Pale substitute

The idea behind Drive 'N Eats is wonderful, even if it is not entirely new. The concept of sitting in your vehicle and having a meal was well established in Madras of olden days. When the first  such restaurant, the Woodland's Drive-in was opened in 1962, the number of vehicles would have been very few, so they also had a place where 'regular' folks could also sit down and have their fill. 

This one seems to have come at the problem from the other side. Every restaurant needs parking space; so why bother with putting up more infrastructure, when you can serve people at their wheels? But then, when this space on Luz Church Road came up in 2019, I mistook it for a parking space; noticed the sign only after a few more passes by the place. Before I could check it out, we had the pandemic lockdowns. A couple of years later, Chennai Metro's construction in this locality cut off easy access to this, and I haven't ventured to check it out since. 

Even with the attraction of a food-court inside - to rival the Woodies single-style menu - it will take a long while before this can claim the mantle of being Chennai's true drive-in restaurant!

Of things gone by

This started off as a picture to say:

"I think that I shall never see
a billboard lovely as a tree.
Indeed, unless the billboards fall,
I'll never see a tree at all"

just to highlight once again how, with the hoardings gone, so much more of Chennai is visible now. To those looking down from the Gemini flyover, the greenery provides a welcome relief from concrete.

But this space has been subject to a double blow; after 46 years, the Agri-Horticultural Society took back this land, which had been leased to Hotel Woodlands. They plan to build a botanical garden and merge it (through overhead walkways and subways) with their large gardens across the road. It is good to hear that this green patch in the heart of the city will remain as such. But then, it is not easy to digest the loss of what was a unique Chennai phenomenon - the Woodlands Drive-In restaurant.

It could have been an elite joint when it opened in 1962; not many cars, or even 2-wheelers, then. Yet, it was never snobbish and never had time for any bandha. One went to Woodies because the food was good, the prices economical and one could stay there for ever. When your car is your table, you don't worry about people drooling over your shoulder, waiting for you to finish.

But Woodies is gone, and the 200-odd people (including the only vegetarian Mr. Madras) who worked there must have been accommodated in other branches of the Woodlands chain. Many of them supposedly began work - as 10 to 12-year olds - when the new concept restaurant opened in 1962 and have forever been called 'boys', even after they had had children and grandchildren of their own. I do hope they are taken care of.

Woodies is gone, and the Government is getting plans for the botanical gardens ready. I hope they do not think that having a coffee shop in the middle of the planned gardens is a good idea. That would be an insult to the institution that was the Drive-In and a sore spot in the gardens themselves.

The poem is "Song of the Open Road", Ogden Nash, from 'Happy Days' (1933)