​

What connects ‘sugar butties’ to The Beatles?  No, it’s not a nickname they earned from their lovestruck female fans. Bread, butter and sugar — this humble sandwich aka butty sparked a young Paul McCartney’s love for comfort food in post-war Liverpool.

As fans celebrate Global Beatles Day today, we’re daydreaming where the Fab Four would drop by for grub if they walked Colaba’s Pasta Lanes instead of the famed Penny Lane, or perhaps ditched the Yellow Submarine for a kaali peeli around town.

Buttery dreams

Paul McCartney’s arrival in the USA in 1964 led to some interesting discoveries; huge portions, for instance. “I’d have the biggest steaks. So big that I’d have to give half of it away. Or a Chicken Kiev with all the butter oozing out,” he recalled in a 2010 interview.

PIC COURTESY/GALLOPS

Chicken a la Kiev 
This legacy restaurant aces the dish with a crisp crust that gives way to buttery goodness on the first cut. Pro tip: Order the decadent dish at least 45 minutes in advance.

AT Gallops, Gate 1, Mahalaxmi Racecourse. 
CALL 69600111

Johnny loves English

“Something in the way, she fries sausages,” Those aren’t the real lyrics, but John Lennon might just have sung it to his former lover May Pang, who revealed in 2025 that Lennon had a “voracious appetite for full English breakfasts” and would ask her to “fry up a black pudding”.

PIC COURTESY/Cafe Mavs

Full English Breakfast
This family-run cafe on Waroda Road stays true to Lennon’s wish of a customary black pudding. We have a feeling he would’ve dropped by Yoko Sizzlers on Hill Road on his way back.

AT Cafe Mavs, 89, Waroda Road, Ranwar, Bandra West.
CALL 9819873959

Bean there, done that

Ringo Starr landed in India with a bag full of canned beans in 1968. Paul Saltzman, author of The Beatles in India, writes how Starr had a sensitive stomach and would often ask the band’s runner Mal Evans to fetch eggs to go with his beans every day. Eight days a week, in other words.

PIC COURTESY/Wikmedia, Istock

Beans and eggs
We reckon the drummer would appreciate this iconic Colaba cafe’s no-frills breakfast menu. Starr, who turned to acrylic and oil paints in the 1990s, should be in good company with Mario Miranda’s murals on its walls.

AT Cafe Mondegar, Colaba Causeway.
CALL 9833322277

Here come the drinks

Performing at the peak of Beatlemania couldn’t have been an easy job. A day in the life was incomplete without a post-concert margarita, as Paul McCartney reveals in a backyard interview with daughter Mary McCartney.

PIC COURTESY/Stables

Margarita
Tequila, triple sec, and lime juice. This sports bar that plays rock gigs every weekend keeps it simple with the classics.  

AT Stables, near Airport Road Metro Station, Andheri East.
CALL 7900176494

Soup for the soul

George Harrison, famously the first Beatle to turn vegetarian, found peace (and peas) in a simple lentil soup during his visits to India that began in 1966. A snippet from the 1980 cookbook Mary Frampton and Friends Rock and Roll Recipes, features Harrison’s own recipe, which includes a generous serving of veggies.

PIC COURTESY/OLIVE BISTRO

Lentil Soup
Tender lentils, aromatic spices and veggies meet in this comforting, creamy soup. Perfect for a rainy day escape, we say.

AT Olive Bistro, Oberoi Mall, Goregaon East.
CALL 9820703331

Why global?

On this date in 1967, The Beatles debuted their evergreen hit track, All You Need Is Love, on BBC’s show, Our World (left). The day is celebrated as Global Beatles Day to mark this historic premiere.