Madras Day 2026: a 121-year-old bakery with a Gen Z heart
The Crown Bakery in Mylapore, Chennai, is celebrating its 121st anniversary. The historic establishment continues to thrive by blending its long-standing heritage with modern appeal.
Why it matters
It highlights the resilience of traditional family-run businesses in urban environments undergoing rapid demographic shifts.
At Bazaar Road in Mylapore, lined with a diversity of shops, “hoary-haired” enterprises show up with impressive frequency. Aged 121, The Crown Bakery wins the demographic tug-of-war among these old enterprises hands down.
Established in 1905 by Kanthasamy Mudaliar, the reins of the shop would be passed on to the current family, the descendants of M. Srinivasan, an admirable torch-bearer of this patiently baked legacy, for several decades.
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