gable’s restaurant
1. For 30 years, Stephen Fernandes has been vegetarian. Every afternoon, he has one green vegetable made by his son Joel at Gable’s, his father’s restaurant.
2. They have always been a sober family. When Gable’s became a Permit Room in the 70s, Stephen would run the bar and study from big books from the Bombay University Library.
3. And as his father Gabriel (Gable) Fernandes grew older, his trademark changed from a pipe to a cycle.
4. The other Goan restaurateurs in Colaba were not so cautious. Mr. Barreto was a very nice man but died young an alcoholic. And Mr. Lopes would come walking from Cusrow Baug, measuring the footpath. He went the same way.
5. Every morning, Gable Fernandes would go to church on his cycle, hear mass, receive communion, come back home and then open the restaurant.
6. Valerian Cardinal Gracias, a terrific orator, had inaugurated Gable’s in 1956. He arrived in his Buick Roadmaster, which he used for even short distances.
7. Above Gable’s, on the first floor of Glamour House, was another trail blazer. Ruby Aaron ran a dancing school with her husband, Sam, and thrice a year she converted their hall into a movie theatre. For Salome, Edwin and Richard’s birthdays, there were cold drinks and cake and an 8mm movie, too much for kiddies in the 1960s. All three kids turned out to be real fantastic dancers and Ruby’s grandchildren are now leading actors.
8. To the fourth floor of Glamour House, all of Bollywood came — Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Johnny Walker, Sanjay Khan and his girlfriend Zarine — to listen to the qawwalis hosted by the Shahnawaz family. Mr. Shahnawaz was the captain of a ship.
9. Gable Fernandes was just keeping up with his neighbours, by keeping fit.
MR. WALES & GABLE GABLE GABLE
ESTABLISHED 1956
Glamour House, Arthur Bunder Road, Colaba.
17th June, 2024.
Supported by:
Photographs by Sunhil Sippy.
