About
Jaali Boutique and Café is in Patnem, South Goa. Set in a lush walled garden, in earshot of the nearby waves and on nodding terms with meandering cows and speedier tuk-tuks. We’re very happy here. Come join us!
A tiny Goan cottage under teak and mango trees was home to our first boutique collection. In November 2014 we gathered together the many treasures we’d found in travels all over the sub-continent, designed and stitched a small line of ready-to-wear, lit the Art Deco lamps we’d found in Jodhpur and opened for business.
Happily, we found people liked Jaali not only as a place to shop but also to gather. So, a year later we built an airy kitchen, made good coffee and delicious food and grew a garden of gul mohur trees and spider lilies between kitchen and cottage.
Now, the boutique carries an expanded collection of it’s eponymous label as well as those of other wonderful designers based in the South Goa area. We also sell a carefully curated collection of contemporary Rajasthani jewellery, home-ware, Pondicherry trinkets and soft furnishings as well as Bengali muslins, handicrafts, vintage furniture and antiques.
In 2018 we opened a store in nearby Agonda Beach too. A little less rustic, a little more chic, it carries the Jaali brand slightly further afield.
Our café serves small plates of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern inspired food. Beautifully presented and prepared with love, our food is made for sharing. We bake cakes and mix cocktails. We’ve strung stars in the trees and open six days a week.
Every Saturday night we dance!
Because we’re asked so often …
Jaali or Jali
जाली jālī, meaning ‘net’
A Jaali is a perforated screen, typically made of stone. The Mughal Jaali is both functional and decorative, it’s ornamental pattern created with the repetition of a single motif.
Ancient Persian design migrated through Turkey into Afghanistan and further still into Rajasthan. This poly-tradition informed the many glorious Jaali seen throughout the region. Forts, palaces, grand haveli and modest contemporary homes all feature this beautiful, breezy, stone net.
We see through the Jaali, but not into it. Protected from harsh direct light but open to air and birdsong, the female Mughal courts relied on jaali for privacy, discretion. And mystery.