A Passport Office Reimagined: Mumbai’s New Cultural Crossover

Housed in a former passport office, Milagro is less about flamboyance and more about atmosphere. It weaves together threads of Spanish art history, old-world hospitality, and Jazz Age melancholia — all without ever raising its voice

There’s something oddly appropriate about Milagro taking shape inside what was once the Bengal Chemicals Bhavan in Prabhadevi — a building that formerly housed Mumbai’s passport office. A place associated with bureaucracy and waiting rooms now holds a space that is less about documents and more about cinematic immersion. You enter through a quiet lift, and with a gentle shift in mood, the city recedes. Light bends differently, surfaces seem to speak, and music sets the tempo for a space that behaves like memory: soft-edged, layered, and curiously mysterious.

Founded by Francesca Smith and Romeo, with Suved Lohia and Deepesh Sharma as co-founders, Milagro—which literally means “miracle”—serves up Spanish-inspired plates, but it’s not just about the food. The interiors, done by Francesca Smith, feel like you’re walking through someone’s moody dream (in the best way). There’s a sense of nostalgia without trying too hard, elegance without the ego.

Design That Whispers, Never Shouts

Francesca Smith’s interiors speak in undertones. The design language leans on nostalgia without mimicry — chalky neutrals, lime-plastered ceiling arches lined with brass, softly veined marble flooring, and oak panelling that feels more inherited than installed.

Crystal chandeliers sourced from Europe cast a golden, ambient glow, complementing vintage mirrors with foxed patinas and hand-forged brass accents. The palette holds itself back: oatmeal, ivory, ash. It never shouts, instead letting materiality and restraint guide the tone.

Furniture is custom but rooted in heritage forms: tufted backs, curved armrests, antique gold trimmings. Tables are spaced with deliberate generosity, allowing semi-privacy and promoting conversation as a central element of the experience. Lighting is perhaps the unsung hero here — transitioning gently from natural light by day to candlelit chiaroscuro by night.

Art as Anchor, Not Accessory

Throughout the dining space, strategically placed reproductions of Joaquín Sorolla’s historic Spanish paintings transform the restaurant into a gallery of cultural memory. These aren’t ornamental pieces; they’re integral to the atmosphere. The way they interact with light — echoing the shifts in tone across dayparts — suggests careful choreography. Their presence ties together the architecture, the food, and the wider cultural narrative, serving as an emotional and visual thread.

Custom pendant lights and recessed ceiling fixtures are tactically placed to mimic the chiaroscuro effect found in 19th-century European oil paintings, deepening the connection between the interior mood and the art on display.

Where Jazz Meets Architecture

Beyond the main dining area lies The Cocktail Room, a space that reads like a tonal shift. Designed by American designer Colby Murray, it’s darker, more cinematic, and unapologetically moody. Walls are clad in dark walnut, booths upholstered in bottle-green velvet, and drapes fall heavy, curtaining off private alcoves. Gold-leafed arches, black crystal chandeliers, and embedded uplights create a stage-set kind of glow.

The bar, 26 feet of hand-cut Calacatta marble with a shifting LED under-glow, sits like a theatre stage at the centre of the room — a literal performance surface for the alchemy of the cocktail program. Gold-accented arches act as both sculptural detail and spatial separators, breaking the space into a rhythm of reveal and conceal. Handcrafted grills, Art Deco light fixtures, and unexpected details like sculpted gargoyles by the entryway add a note of whimsy, without ever descending into kitsch.

It’s a space where live jazz often takes the lead — unannounced but always atmospheric. There are no neon signs or thematic clutter here. Just a slow, steady immersion into a world of polished melancholy and velvet-toned intimacy.

A Culinary Language That Matches the Space

Food, in this case, follows the tone of the space rather than leading it — and that might be its most intelligent move. Chef José Manuel Borrallo Sánchez, with his Michelin-honed training across Paris and Mallorca, offers a menu that’s restrained yet deliberate. Spanish classics are elevated by contemporary presentation, but never diluted for performance.

Cocktails by Sebastian Donso and Felipe Guajardo Silva play with molecular elements, yet remain rooted in timeless flavour profiles. The bar becomes not just a serving counter but a platform for alchemy — a quiet performance of colour, scent, and subtle technique that doesn’t overshadow, but complements.

A Mood, Not a Moment

What Milagro achieves is no small feat — it draws from disparate references and disciplines, but weaves them into a narrative that feels both personal and grand. It avoids the trap of themed design and instead creates something atmospheric, even transportive. The space doesn’t scream “luxury” — it hums it, in the register of candlelight, curved wood, and quiet pauses.

In a city like Mumbai, where new openings are often dictated by trends and Instagrammable moments, Milagro is best understood not as a space, but as a sustained architectural mood — one that lingers, quietly and indelibly, long after you’ve left.

Also read, The Year of Surreality: Maison et Objet 2025