The owners behind Spice Waala have opened a new cafe in Wallingford called Janta, serving coffee alongside Indian food and drinks in the space that used to be Fuel Coffee. The cafe is owned by Uttam Mukherjee and Aakanksha Sinha, and it fills out a menu of savory pastries, sandwiches and India-inspired beverages at 1705 North 45th Street.
Janta draws its concept from a very specific memory: the cafe at St. Stephen's College in Delhi, where Mukherjee first met Sinha, who is now both his wife and business partner, according to Axios. The pair spent time with friends at that college cafe, and per Instagram, they've described Janta as a love letter to their college days. Seattle magazine reports that the same inspiration — the cafe at St. Stephen's College in New Delhi — shaped the project, noting in its own account that Seattle magazine that Mukherjee met Sinha there.
What's Actually on the Menu
Janta's drink list leans into its Indian roots. There's masala chai, haldi doodh — turmeric milk infused with spices — and pheta coffee, made from Nescafe whipped with sugar, according to Axios. The Infatuation's review of the cafe separately describes mango lassi, turmeric-steeped haldi doodh and chai among its non-coffee offerings, while noting the project comes from the team behind Spice Waala.
Food options include savory pastries and sandwiches, with the aloo puff — a spiced potato puff pastry — standing out as a signature bite. Seattle magazine describes that pastry as coming in under $5, calling it a comforting little bite worth ordering. The cafe also serves espresso drinks made from beans grown in India, per the same account, giving coffee purists something familiar alongside the more distinctly Indian offerings.
A Backyard Built for Lingering
Beyond the counter, Janta includes an expansive back space designed for socializing, games and reading, according to Axios. The word Janta itself means “people” in Hindi, co-owner Uttam Mukherjee has explained, a name that fits a cafe clearly built around gathering rather than quick pickup orders. Seattle magazine reports that Mukherjee has said Janta will host pizza nights, author talks and other community-minded events in the evenings.
The cafe is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and closed Sundays and Mondays, per Axios. An earlier report from My Ballard had placed the cafe's planned address at the same 1705 North 45th Street location ahead of its debut.
Part of a Broader Shift in Seattle Coffee
Janta's opening lands amid what Seattle magazine frames as a broader shift in the city's coffee culture, describing the cafe as part of a trend of shops breaking free of the Eurocentric traditions that long defined Seattle's coffee scene. A separate Seattle magazine piece on the city's newer cafes notes that this generation leans into light roasts and global flavors that go well beyond the Italian influence of the 1990s.
That same piece points to other examples around the city, including Nudibranch, described as Seattle's first and so far only Thai coffee shop, known for Thai-style sweetened coffee topped with salty coconut foam. It also cites Orange Goose, a Korean-Hawaiian coffee shop whose owner, Polu Arsiga, turned a pop-up into a brick-and-mortar cafe this past spring. Janta joins that list as Wallingford's entry in a citywide rethink of what a neighborhood coffee shop can serve.
