The Oberoi​ Renaissance

An icon returns to the heart of the Capital as a youthful hotel with an old soul

- Kaveree Bamzai

The Oberoi Hotel, New Delhi, has been part of the Capital’s memory scape for over 50 years. Everyone has their own favourite story about it. Of splashing about in its marble fountain in the lobby. Of fancy dates over coffee and pastries at their 24x7 coffee shop. Of dancing till 3 am at the nightclub, Tabela. And of discreetly being provided with a jacket before being allowed to enter the very snooty Cafe Chinois with its live band and Cantonese food on the hotel rooftop.

And those are the memories of merely its first avatar. In its second version, after it was renovated in 1984, The Oberoi continued to dazzle with its impeccable service even as younger hotels started upping the food and beverage game of a city learning to live with colour TV, the early generation of computers and Rajiv Gandhi’s corporate savvy political newbies.