A cafe filled with love for culture, food and design, the founders Arinaro and Wungchipem are here to talk about their cafe Sorshia & Co. Located in the beautiful and silent hills of Kohima, Nagaland, this cafe has a very distinct “Kohima feels” and their taste of design can be seen in the interiors of the cafe. We are also excited about the prospect of the cafe culture picking up in Kohima as it exists in Dimapur – which is the current hub of cafes and lounges in Nagaland.
Here’s a brief chat with the owners – Arinaro and Wungchipem to tell us the story behind Sorshia & Co. and what to expect from the cafe.
Arinaro and Wungchipem
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Please introduce yourself and your latest venture together 🙂
Wungchipem : Sorshia & Co. is co-owned by the two of us, and we both live in Kohima. Ari and I come from very different backgrounds in terms of our education, influences, interests and our line of work but our love for food, designs and cafés motivated us to start this project together. Ari is one of those people who grew up both in Dimapur and Kohima. I, on the other hand, cannot get more of Kohima than this; it’s always been my only home.
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Tell us a little bit more about Sorshia & Co. What about the name too – what does it mean?
Wungchipem : It was officially opened on the 14th of February 2018. Honestly, we would have never chosen that day to launch Sorshia & Co., but we were unable to meet our deadlines and finally when the time came around, the 14th just seemed like the perfect day to open our doors to everyone who wanted a place to hang out. I don’t know why I felt a strong urge to explain this; so here it is!
We wanted our café to be a place that reflected us. We wanted the designs and the set up to be honest, the food to be pure and most importantly, the hospitality to be genuine. We’re not necessarily trying to be different but we really believe we can all adopt a new work culture here at home – a work culture that reflects and inspires our generation.
The name Sorshia is a combination of my mom and dad’s names : Sorei and Eshia
Interiors of Sorshia & Co.
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What is the concept of the cafe. What was the inspiration behind it?
To be honest, I don’t think we had an intentional theme or concept behind the café in terms of design; we just went ahead with what we liked and wanted something that felt like home. Ari and I have been lucky enough to experience different cultures, visit different places and I think the inspiration behind the café comes as a result of all those little things we picked up along the way.
Interiors of Sorshia & Co.
Interiors of Sorshia & Co.
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How has your roots encouraged you to do what you are doing today?
Pretty much most of what we do is because of our roots and where we come from. We don’t want our café to be an experience that is formulated out of educated ideas or things we don’t really understand or believe in. We want it to be honest and genuine and that’s where our roots come in.
We both come from families where most of what we do surrounds around food. It has always been an integral part of both our childhoods. We love how our people in general are very hospitable and good at making people feel at home. That’s something we need to take pride in and make sure we don’t lose it. When we initially started making plans about the café, those were some of the things we really wanted to preserve and learn from.
Interiors of Sorshia & Co.
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What is so special about your cafe Sorshia & Co.?
We really want the food to be special because at the end, it’s all about the food. However, we also want the experience to be warm and inviting. We feel it’s the relationship between humans that makes a place special and we hope to provide that to our friends who visit our café.
Grilled BBQ Chicken with Bacon Potatoes
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What do you guys serve? What’s the most special thing on your menu
That’s one question we don’t really know how to answer because I don’t think we’re strictly following a particular cuisine. What we serve is mostly Asian but we love how we can take the freedom to experiment with the food we’re serving by putting our own spin to it. At the end, I think is just fun and tasty food.
It’s hard to pick the most special thing on our menu, I almost feel as though I’m going to be betraying the rest on the menu, but here are some favourites : The stir-fried beef, the chicken/pork in oyster sauce, the pork ribs, the sliders, the chicken strips, the Korean noodles. We love serving these foods and there seem to be a positive response too.
A new entrant to the menu : The Korean Kimbap
Rice with Grilled Chicken, Eggs and Some Stirred Fried Greens
Grilled Sesame & Ginger Chicken Skewer
Chicken Roast with Herbed Potatoes and Carrots with Coleslaw.
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What have you learned ever since you’ve started this journey?
It’s amazing how a shared love for something can bring many folks together to help each other out – and make the overall experience a happy one. We love how we are able to collaborate with some of our friends who are into the similar line of work. For instance, we get our fresh coffee beans from ÉTÉ Coffee, we go to the same church and they are amazing at what they do and it’s so awesome that we can get quality products locally as well. We’ve also tied up with the amazing and hard-working guys at Online Express to provide home delivery for our customers. I think this is all very exciting and fun!
Find them on Instagram and go visit the cafe for a lovely Kohima experience – that also has a good mix of many new cultures that have influenced the folks in Nagaland. Freshly roasted homegrown coffee with some Korean Kimbap and the hospitality of the Nagas sounds tempting indeed!
Address: Sorshia & Co.Cafe Belho Complex P.R.HILL Kohima
