With love pouring from all over India for its famed ghee soaked ‘sohan halwa’ online since its physical store closed in 2015, owners of Ghantewala, the Mughal-era outlet in Old Delhi’s bustling Chandni Chowk, decided to reopen its doors for customers in the city after almost a decade this week with the shop now combining the old with the new with its classic sweets sharing space with healthier alternatives such as ragi laddus.
Established in 1790 by Lala Sukh Lal Jain, Ghantewala, one of the popular landmarks of ‘Dilli 6’ was forced to to pull down its shutters in 2015 due to dwindling sales. However, come 2024, the Mughal-era shop witnessing popular demand for its products online is now back to its old address, this time in a new swanky avatar, attracting its patrons with the same old wafting aroma of desi ghee and the sweet mix of khoya, coconut and rich nuts.
“My whole family was extremely sad when we had to close the store in 2015. Many customers would come and complain to us, ‘Where would we eat good quality sweets now, especially our favourite ‘Sohan Halwa?’” Ghantawala owner Sushant Jain said.
“Finally, two-three years ago we started selling our legacy sweets online, and the kind of response we got from customers pan-India was too overwhelming. That is when we decided that we should start our physical outlet again,” Jain said. The ‘Sohan halwa’, a ghee dripping gram flour biscuit of Persian origin, has been a trademark delicacy of the shop since the beginning.
Giving a sneak peek into the rich history of the shop, and even food inflation over the years, is the picture of its 1954 menu featured in the renovated outlet’s ‘wall of fame’ where ‘Sohan Halwa’ is priced at almost Rs six per kg. The current price for Sohan Halwa at the shop is Rs 1,100 per kg -- an astronomical increase of over 18,000 per cent since 1954.
The wall of fame also displays pictures and testimonies of its eminent clients, including the likes of former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Morarji Desi, and even acclaimed painter MF Hussain.
Aryan Jain, 23, son of Sushant Jain and the eighth-generation descendant of Lala Sukh Ram, said the new outlet will be a “balance of tradition and innovation”. So, besides the tried and tasted ‘Aloo laccha’, ‘Mysore Pak’, ‘Dalmoth’, ‘Pista Lauj’, the new menu also includes gluten-free delicacies like Ragi (Finger Millet) Laddu and sweetmeats made of dry fruits, containing natural sweeteners.
The menu also offers Delhi’s famous street foods Chhola-Bhatura and chaat -- all prepared in desi ghee. “I am not selling just some sweets and ‘chaat’ here, what I am mainly selling here is the legacy which I have inherited from my great great grandfathers,” said Aryan, who recently pursued a degree in Hotel Management to add more expertise to the family business.
Be it the old customers making a beeline for the shop after hearing the news about its reopening or the new ones paying a visit to know the reason behind all the hype, the reviews by walk-ins have been music to the ears of the Jain family.
“We came to Chandni Chowk for my wedding shopping. In between we had some time for breakfast, so I asked people which would be a good place to go, everyone said, ‘Ghantewala’. The food is really good,” said Umesh Kumar Singh, a customer hailing from Gurgaon. “This place actually gives you the typical ‘Dilli 6’ taste. I guess we would be coming here more often now,” he said.
