The BBQ that ran out of chai before it ran out of people
A summer BBQ with Berlindians in Volkspark Friedrichshain: 28 people, grilled food from Indian Biryani Company, and the chai that stole the day.
Twenty-eight people, one grill pit in Volkspark Friedrichshain, and a batch of instant chai that ran out before the afternoon did.
That was our July 4th.
It started on a walk
A few weeks earlier I was walking with Abhishek Agrawal, who runs Berlindians. We got talking about the same thing we always circle back to: people move to Berlin, they work, they settle in, and then months go by without a proper afternoon spent with other people who get it. What if we just gave them a reason to show up?
Food is the easiest reason there is. Summer was coming. So we stopped talking about it and picked a date.
The part nobody sees
We ran registrations through Luma. On our side, we took the logistics: booking the grill spots at Volkspark Friedrichshain, sorting the procurement, getting the food and everything else to the park on the day. It's the unglamorous half of any event and it's most of the work. Reservations, ice, coal, cups, the car runs back and forth.
My co-founder Anwesh did a lot of that driving, ferrying us and the gear across town more times than either of us counted, and then spent the afternoon on the grill. None of it works without someone willing to do the boring parts well.
Worth it the moment the first people arrive and it all just works.
Avinash on the grill
The food is where this stopped being a picnic and became a meal. Indian Biryani Company came in on the cooking, and their founder Avinash Ronanki did the marination himself. He tested a few things ahead of the day, then ran the grill through the afternoon with us helping him out while he shared his secrets to grilling.
What came off it:
- Malai Chicken
- Chicken Seekh Kebab
- Tandoori Chicken
- Tandoori Paneer
- Mango Lassi to go with all of it
People kept coming back for the tandoori chicken. The seekh kebabs disappeared faster than I expected.
The afternoon itself
About 28 people turned up, drifting in across the afternoon the way these things go. The weather didn't do us any favours. Cooler than a July afternoon should be. But the energy held, and a slightly grey sky turned out to matter a lot less than warm food and people who wanted to be there.
The conversations were the real thing. People from different parts of India, comparing notes on Berlin and on the one ingredient nobody can ever get right here. A few non-Indians came along too, drawn in purely by the food, which is its own kind of win.
And then the chai.
We brought instant chai from Silk Route SE, founded by Pallav Rawat. I thought of it as a nice-to-have. It became the highlight of the day. Everyone wanted to try it, everyone had an opinion, and it held up. We ran out of boiling water before we ran out of people wanting a cup, which tells you everything. There's something funny about a room full of people who swear by the stovetop version lining up for instant chai and asking where to buy it.
What I took home
You don't need a big idea to bring people together. You need food good enough to be the reason, and someone willing to do the boring half so everyone else can just show up.
Thank you to Berlindians for building the crowd, to Avinash and the Indian Biryani Company for cooking like it was for family, and to Silk Route for the chai that stole the afternoon.
The next one is already set: August 15, again with Berlindians. If you missed this round, that's your chance to make it.
And the chai that ran us out of hot water? We stock it. If you want to find out what 28 people wouldn't stop talking about, the Silk Route instant chai is on aahaar.de — boil more water than you think you'll need.