Sharma Cold Pani Puri at Girgaum Chowpatty has completed 100 years with three generations of the family, originally hailing from Salampur, a remote village in Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, serving pani-puri the Maharashtrian style. Shetty’s, their next-door neighbour, dish out the city special pav-bhaji, not minding to take orders from customers for the Sharmas where waiters—hailing from UP, Bihar and MP—understand little Marathi.

“We all have one religion and that is to do good business. Hum log tamatar, pav aur kanda sab kuch share karta hain,” says Rahul Kamble of Shetty’s pav-bhaji corner.

From a roadside thela to an authorised stall, the Sharmas have come a long way ever since Ram Sharma migrated to the city almost a century ago. Sharma’s son Nand and grandson Chandrashekar today run the business, offering their customers a wide range of street food Mumbai is famous for—keeping in mind the palate of different customers.

“A customer from UP asks for spicy bhel. For Gujaratis, we add a little crumbled sugar. You will get everything—pani-puri, ragda-puri, etc made to your taste,” says Chandrashekhar.

The weather makes a difference too—chilled pani-puri is a favourite in summers while customers prefer the “garam chole wali in this winter chill”.

And Lakhan Singh—working at the stall for the past 14 years—takes the customer-savvy service to another level, personally asking people: “Pani-puri khaoge ya garam chole-wali? Teekha hai to mithi chatni walal banaoon?”

No wonder, the Sharma Cold Pani Puri has survived several attempts to remove stalls from the Chowpatty.