every place has a Story, sometimes it quietly becomes part of yours.

My story with Kodaikanal did not begin in 2021.

Years earlier, while visiting Coaker's Walk with my wife, I remember saying, "I could live here one day." It was nothing more than a passing thought—or so I believed.

In 2021, I returned for a job opportunity at a boutique hotel near Coaker's Walk.
I had no idea that this visit would change the course of my life.

The more I explored the town, the more curious I became about its history. While I found remarkable stories of Kodaikanal's early settlers, missionaries and travellers, I found surprisingly little about its culinary heritage. That search eventually led me to the history of the property that became our first home—once associated with Charlotte Chandler Wyckoff. Naming the restaurant Wyckoff's Dining Room became our way of honouring a small piece of Kodaikanal's history.

The restaurant has never stopped evolving. Nearly two-thirds of today's menu is different from what we first served. Recipes are never permanent here. They are refined, questioned, improved and, sometimes, replaced. The menu changes because I do. Every year teaches me something new about food, technique and hospitality.

Dhimbam Ghat, enroute Kodaikanal in November 2021, -TN