Having 22+ venues for the Kochi Muziris Biennale is no small thing. It’s ambitious, sprawling, and genuinely exciting to witness. We’re halfway through this edition of the Biennale, but it feels like something new is rearing its head every new day. There are performances associated with the Biennale on each day, and numerous art spaces, not directly affiliated with it, also host events and exhibits. But when you’re in Fort Kochi, there’s a lot more to do than moving from gallery to gallery or limiting yourself to spice markets and souvenir shops. Over the last month of being in and around Fort Kochi — spending my time in its cafés, streets, venues, and with the people who live and work here — what’s become clear to me is how much of the locale exists outside the official circuits.
What gets missed are the smaller spaces in the in-betweens, and the places one may wander into without planning to, and conversations that lead you somewhere unexpected. This isn’t a list of hidden gems or insider hacks. It’s simply a reflection of what you begin to notice when you slow down and spend real time here — the kinds of experiences the Fort Kochi town offers naturally, without a lot of branding or packaging.
Experience
If you’re looking for a place where you’re bound to encounter interesting cultural experiences, the Great KV Kathakali Centre regularly hosts performances that allow for a direct encounter with classical art forms. Drum circles surface organically at places like Arman Collective & Café and David Hall / Pandhal Café, especially in the evenings. The Mehaboob Memorial Orchestra continues to host regular programmes at their venue, still in honour of the late, great and beloved singer of Mattancherry – Mehboob.
For those who want to explore the city through heritage, context and conversation, the Kochi Heritage Project, led by Johan Binny Kuruvila, offers heritage walks that unpack Fort Kochi’s layered histories through varying avenues – architecture, food, trade, migration, cultural intersections and more, taking you through the Kochi of old and new, in a manner that is anything but touristic. There is extensive research that has gone into shaping the themes of these walks, and they are something to embark on year-round.
But some of the best encounters with Fort Kochi happen without structure. Walking down Princess Street after 7 pm is often enough to understand this. You might encounter someone performing in the town centre, a small crowd forming, someone playing the saxophone, and someone who can’t help but dance when they hear classics like ‘Buffalo Soldier’ or ‘Quizas, Quizas, Quizas’. These are hardly ‘events’ by Fort Kochi standards, but they’re part of its everyday existence.
Francis is a mainstay pub here where rock music and nostalgia reign supreme, and live performances happen often, and those who walk in as strangers end up singing ABBA classics en masse by the end of the night. This similar energy of gathering and shared experience carries into other spaces around town. There are a lot more events that happen, which aren’t heavily publicised, and you usually hear about them through someone, or simply happen to be there on the right night. This informality is essentially how Fort Kochi operates.
Eat
Food in Fort Kochi ranges from café culture, local institutions, and places that double up as social spaces. For elevated breakfast options, Pandhal Café (David Hall) and French Toast are reliable starting points. For affordable, filling meals, City Star (Balan Chettan Kada), Hotel Salwa, Rahmathullah Biryani, and Shantilal S Mithaiwala are places locals return to repeatedly. Just make sure to check the timing for these restaurants, as they all have specific timings they stick to.
For slightly more elevated dining, places like Brunton Boatyard and Lila offer contemporary takes on Kerala-inspired menus. There is a patisserie within Lila called Aura, which offers up well-crafted pastry that ranges from butter croissants to plated desserts like an exotic pavlova with tropical fruits. Hotel Paragon has also found an address in Fort Kochi, inside the Cochin Club and is a great option for a sumptuous meal in a beautiful setting. Evening in Fort Kochi, many flock to Seagull Bar, but be aware that getting a seat isn’t a given, and food might take a lot more time than one would expect. But if you can manage to get a deck table with a view of the sea, order a plate of calamari to go with your beer or wine. The aforementioned Francis draws in a mix of locals, artists, travellers, and people who didn’t plan on staying quite this long and brings them together over cold beer, nostalgic music and great continental bar bites.
Canvas Restaurant & Pizzeria and Club House are great options for late-night bites, staying open till 12 AM and 1 AM respectively, offering different fares but sitting comfortably within the town’s food landscape. Trouvaille Cafe with its great combination of continental dishes, classic option of no-frills coffees and teas is located on Princess Street, and is a great respite while running around Fort Kochi, especially if you’d like a place with A/C, Wifi and a place to charge your phone too (we know of how galleries tend to fill up and phone charge starts to run low).
Then there’s Nosh Haus (Arrow Mark, Mattancherry), which feels less like a café and more like an experience. You walk through an antique store to reach it. They focus on artisanal coffees, including whiskey barrel-aged and Pineapple Fermented Beans, and there’s a large old banyan tree in the courtyard. There’s very little food beyond pastries, but that’s not really the point of the visit. ‘Coz Café has also had a temporary outpost at Arman Collective, titled ‘Coz Layover,‘ which is a Biennale venue and makes for a great stopover.
Shop
Shopping in Fort Kochi is a lot less about consumption and more about curation and intent, particularly in the independent spaces beyond tourist-heavy circuits.
One Zero Eight by Save The Loom brings together Indian designer labels and craft-led fashion in a space that makes you want to slow down and browse with intention. You’ll find brands like Pero alongside smaller discoveries, and the team is usually generous with context around what you’re seeing. The Pepper House Design Shop continues to function as a space where clothing, objects, jewellery and stationery coexist thoughtfully, with Tinky Mathew’s curatorial sensibility especially evident in the stationery and zines segment.
The standalone House of Vandy on Queiros Street curates sustainable clothing, jewellery, accessories and lifestyle objects from makers across India, with a focus on material integrity and conscious production. The space has been hosting several trunk shows and pop-ups or workshops weekly, and now even has a temporary outpost of the bakery, Relish, on its first floor. Nirvriti Store is another one to add to your list, which is located inside the renowned Cochin Club. They feature selected lifestyle objects – from pottery and fine art work pieces to driftwood elevated into beautiful lamps to naturally dyed attire; all well-curated and on display, but available for purchase too.
Aambal (by Sandeep Johnson) operates from a similar ethical grounding, stocking garments, bags, wellness products and everyday objects made using organic fabrics, handloom, natural dyes and slow processes, with curation driven by how things are made rather than trend cycles.
There’s also a collaborative space between Alka Hari, Found Object, and Art by Vineetha, where fashion, handcrafted home objects and abstract art share a single storefront. Ela, founded by Bindu Nair, works primarily with handwoven textiles and natural fibres, offering dresses, tunics, shirts and easy separates that feel lived-in rather than styled, often experimenting with print on handloom fabrics.
Sreeith Jeevan, founder of the Kerala-origin label, Rouka, has a space in Mattancherry near Xandari Harbour showcasing his label’s work alongside a curated selection of objects. SALT Studio, a Kochi-based brand, has a Chavittunaadakam-themed store in the main locale of Fort Kochi, where most of the Biennale exhibits are situated. So you might find yourself wandering into a themed store and discovering a piece of culture and some new additions to your wardrobe, too.
Two dedicated brand stores worth knowing about are Suee, founded by NIFT graduates Hiba Mariyam and Krishna Karapath, which works closely with weaving communities across Kerala (particularly Kannur) to create contemporary garments rooted in handloom processes, whose work was recently given the Kairali Young Entrepreneur Award and was spotted on Mammootty within a few days, having given them the award and assuring he will wear their pieces made with intention in Kerala. There is also Azurovy, a newer space that brings together a quaint café called Solemar, a curated store with a range of fashion and lifestyle labels, a small gallery and workshop space, and an Airbnb under one roof, located conveniently close to the Naval Maritime Museum.
There are quite a few interesting book stores to check out when in Fort Kochi, but at the top are Idiom booksellers, which have been a mainstay for a long time and are a treasure trove of books across genres and even languages. Make sure to check out their pre-owned selection if you enjoy a good deal on your books and don’t mind a few (or a lot) of dog-eared pages.
Printed Matter is another bookstore and cafe in Calvathy Road, Fort Kochi, that is intentional with their curation, stocks a lot of independently published comics, zines and books, and has started to host readings too. Look out for their selection of curios and collectables when visiting.
Special Mentions
The Police Museum is an unexpectedly absorbing space if you’re interested in social history, since it offers insight into the evolution of policing in India. There’s also a small Perfume Museum worth stopping by if you’re in Mattancherry. Victoria Coins & Stamps in Jew Town Road is another interesting find to check out if you are interested in collecting coins and stamps, or just like to experience things that are offbeat.
The antique stores of Mattancherry reward slow digging rather than rushed browsing. Jew Town and Gujarati Street continue to be rich with spice markets, but it’s worth asking locals where they actually shop – pricing and quality are far better when you step away from the tourist traps and into the everyday part of Fort Kochi.
All this being said, what tends to happen if you spend more than a few days here is that you begin to recognise people. Conversations pick up where they left off. You start to feel a sense of belonging, even if you are only here for a while.
All this to say — if you’re looking for things to do beyond the Biennale in Fort Kochi, the real suggestion is simple: spend time. Walk. Wander; most importantly, talk to people and follow their suggestions. Visit the places that are not on the maps, but learned of through word of mouth from the residents – that is where you discover the best of Fort Kochi.
