From fire starters to camping gear: This café in Bengaluru gives its visitors a taste of military life

Restaurant at Olive Planet’s gear store in Yelahanka is ‘supposed to be an experience’; it also has a 10-metre air rifle-shooting range.

When actor Vicky Kaushal yelled ‘How’s the Josh’ in 'Uri', it quickly became a part of the political lexicon. And while the film is still busy setting records, did you know it has a Bengaluru connect? It turns out that most of the military props and equipment, right down to the uniforms, were provided by a Bengaluru-based military gear store, Olive Planet. Started by two ex-army men, captain Chethan YK and Captain Niranth Bymana, the store has recently expanded into a café to give civilians a taste of the military life.

It’s not your regular sit-and-dine restaurant. A group of big green tents greets you as you walk into the military hangar-style campus in Yelahanka. The tents serve as the restaurant and the olive-green painted wooden benches and tables are the no-frills seating. While the café serves regular fare like pastas, sandwiches, pancakes and salads, a trip here is not limited to just food.




It has a 10-metre air rifle-shooting range. A 2,000 sqft lawn is where the café also hosts workshops about the products sold by the store, such as the fire starters, camping gear, tents, etc. Owners Chethan and Bymana say they wanted an outdoorsy café with no walls or floors. “We had the luxury of space and, hence, decided on propping up these military-grade tents. The café is supposed to be an experience,” Bymana said. They also keep the military conversation going with sessions with veterans and screenings of war documentaries. They also organise life skill workshops on surviving in the wild, navigating, wild fruits and leaves that are safe to eat, poisonous and non-poisonous insects, etc.

“We started the café with an aim to educate people about the life in the military and surviving the outdoors. A lot of research went into it as we have no experience in the hospitality sector,” Bymane said. “Earlier, lots of youngsters would come to the store out of curiosity and we realised that there weren’t many places around for them to hang out, which is why the idea of the café was born.”

Only a few months old, the café is always buzzing with students from nearby colleges, while most of their workshops are populated by corporates and families with children. While the Olive Planet store operates in three other cities, Chandigarh, Gurgaon and Mau (MP), the café is unique to Bengaluru.