Bakehouse and café, Deccan, Pune

Warm bakes for the wettest weeks of the year.

We light the oven at half past five each morning, so there are cardamom knots cooling on the rack by the time the first shower reaches our lane. Order ahead and we will have your box packed, dry and waiting at the counter.

Build your order This week's box

This week at the counter

For the long, grey afternoons:The Monsoon Box.

Four of our favourite bakes, packed in a waxed card box for the kind of afternoon when nobody wants to leave the house. Inside you will find a butter croissant, a cardamom knot, a bhutta cheese scone and a pair of mawa cakes.

ServesTwo, generously, or one with ambition.
PackedIn waxed card with a vented lid, so the pastry stays crisp on the ride home.
SeasonTuesday to Sunday for as long as the rain keeps coming.

Per box₹520

Order ahead for pickup

Choose your bakes, pick a time, and we will do the rest.

Everything here comes out of our oven the same morning. Add what you like, choose a half-hour slot, and collect from the pickup shelf by the side window. You pay at the counter when you arrive.

From the oven

Baked this morning

From the stove

Poured when you arrive

Pickup time

Slots run every half hour from 8 am to 7:30 pm. We need about 45 minutes to pack an order, and we are closed on Mondays.

Our story

A bakehouse named for the rain.

Barish means rain, and the name arrived before the ovens did. Meher Deshpande grew up two lanes away, in a house where the first monsoon shower meant bhajiyas and a pot of chai on the stove.

She trained as a pastry cook, came home, and opened Barish in a former printing press with a tall wood-framed window that fogs up every July. The press is gone, the window stayed, and on wet evenings the whole lane seems to gather in front of it.

Founder and story are sample copy for a fictional brand

01Butter we can name

Our butter comes from a small dairy cooperative in the hills south of the city, churned twice a week. It is the reason our croissants shatter and our nankhatai melt.

02Dough that takes its time

Croissant dough rests for two nights before it is rolled. Sourdough ferments overnight in the cool back room, which in July is the only cool room in Pune.

03A menu that follows the weather

When the bhutta carts appear on the corner, corn goes into our scones. When the rain eases, the chai gets lighter. The counter changes with the season, and so do we.

A day at the oven

From the first loaf to the last lamp.

Knowing when things come out of the oven helps you choose a slot. Croissants are best before noon, and the cardamom knots are still warm at eleven.

5:30
The oven is lit
Sourdough goes in first, while the lane is still dark and the gutters are loud.
7:30
Shutters up
Croissants come out as the doors open, and the first pot of cutting chai is poured.
11:00
Second bake
Cardamom knots and bhutta scones, timed for late breakfasts and early lunches.
16:00
Chai hour
The rain usually peaks now. Bun maska, mawa cakes and the big flask for the office.
19:30
Last pickup
The final pickup slot of the day. Anything unsold is shared with neighbours and the staff table.
20:00
Lamps off
The window goes dark, the starter is fed, and the lane belongs to the frogs.

Find the window

Come in out of the rain.

Address

14 Neem Lane, off Prabhat Road, Deccan Gymkhana, Pune 411004

Hours

Tuesday to Sunday, 7:30 am to 8 pm. Closed on Mondays, when the oven rests.

Pickup

Order online or at the counter. The pickup shelf sits just inside the side window, under the green awning, so you barely get wet.

Choose your bakes and drinks from the counter above.
Pick a half-hour slot and leave a name and number.
Collect from the side window, pay by UPI, card or cash.