The Second Floor

For coffee, books and infotainment – 


The Second Floor Cafe is back, bigger and better than ever. After having disappeared from the scene for a good many months as it needed to relocate itself and then get into functioning mode this intellectual hub is not only back, it is twice its previous size and guarantees twice the fun. Owner Sabeen Mehmud jokingly calls it T2F Version 2.0, in keeping with her background in computers. The Second Floor or T2F as it is more commonly known has expanded into a double-storey set up. The new venue has a generous offering of many exciting services, including a conference room and individual work stations for hire on a monthly basis. Initiated two years ago, T2F is a cafe with a difference. It has always provided lots more than just coffee – and I’m not talking of the menu here. Mehmud’s vision was to come up with a platform for creative expression, and the extensive range of events that her space has hosted since its inception has certainly proved that she has succeeded in her mission.


T2F now boasts ‘Faraar’, an art gallery on the ground floor, dubbed a "new media playground for artists, photographers and designers". Artists can exhibit their work over a broad spectrum of genres. The rules are simple - the work must encourage dialogue. T2F did exhibit work at its previous venue too, but here, at Version 2.0, the gallery is much bigger and the lighting and interiors do justice to the artists’ efforts.
Sophiya Khwaja was exhibiting her work, titled ‘Forced Gridlock’ when this scribe visited the venue. She informs me her work "Deals with unwelcome external interferences in an individual’s everyday life." Asim Butt, a popular artist and activist who recently passed away, was commemorated by T2F and a memorial was held in his honour. Asim had done a mural at the previous venue, pictures of which have been given a special place in a niche in an orange wall of the first floor of the new cafe.