FEATURE
NOVEMBER 5, 2013
Liberty Champion/B7
Hot and Cold Café offers Indian options
Owned and operated by Uday Muhkerjee, the restuarant’s success is solely attributed to God’s influence Dillon Sherlock djsherlock@liberty.edu
Hannah Lipscomb | Liberty Champion
WELCOME — The Hot and Cold Café opened in 2007.
The Hot and Cold Café, located in downtown Lynchburg, provides unique food options and a homey atmosphere to visitors. Owned and operated by Uday Muhkerjee, Hot and Cold Café has been serving the Lynchburg area as the exclusive IndianMediterranean fusion restaurant since 2007. The restaurant is located at 205 Ninth Street, between Main and Church Streets. Muhkerjee moved to New York from India in 2000, then down to Lynchburg in 2002 where he continued working in the restaurant business. In February 2007, he and his wife, who helps with the logistical side of the restaurant operation, took over the Ninth Street Mediterranean Deli and turned the restaurant into what it is today. “Virginia is for lovers, so I got my love here, and this is where I settled,” Muhkerjee said about his wife. The restaurant is small in size but boasts an impressive menu of Indian and Mediterranean food, as well as an environment that makes visitors feel welcome, according to Muhkerjee. The menu features a number of culturally traditional meals that include gyros, pita and hummus, falafels and a variety of curry dishes. After the main course, customers can enjoy Indian and Mediterranean desserts that include baklava and rice pudding, among other items. And according to Muhkerjee, when customers visit on their birthday
Hannah Lipscomb| Liberty Champion
OWNER — Muhkerjee specializes in organic dishes. or for the first time, he treats them to a free dessert. “My specialty is that I don’t use any artificial color, flavor or anything,” Muhkerjee said. “Everything is natural and organic.” Although he is a vegetarian, Muhkerjee said that some of his most popular dishes include chicken, lamb and goat that he prepares in-house. Hot and Cold Café offers a daily buffet that costs $7.99 between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and is $8.99 from 12-2:30 p.m. Saturday. “The customers always like my lunch buffet because of the good quality and affordable price,” Muhkerjee said. “There are no other buffets around here that offer this kind of food.” According to Muhker-
jee, he strives to show good service, and he makes an effort to get to know each one of his customers. “Everything I make, I try to make for the customers’ satisfaction, not my own,” Muhkerjee said. Hot and Cold Cafe is rated No. 6 among 237 Lynchburg restaurants, according to tripadvisor. com. The rating system takes into account food, service, value and atmosphere. The cafe scored well above average in all of these categories in many reviews. Special pricing is also available for takeout and children under 8. For more information on Hot and Cold Café, visit hotcoldcafe.com or call (434)-846-4976.
SHERLOCK is a feature reporter.
Scaremare staff celebrates salvations Sara Warrender sewarrender2@liberty.edu
Scaremare, Liberty University’s student-run Halloween evangelism outreach, had 25,315 people walk the trails and rooms associated with the event this year, while 3,422 people said they made a salvation decision for Christ, according to Richard Brown, an assistant professor of youth ministries. Scaremare took place on the nights of Oct. 1012, 17-19 and 24-26. According to Brown, Scaremare had a theme this year of Jesus being able to take on the cares of the world, which was represented by heavy backpacks. Visitors who entered Scaremare’s second house saw a skit performed by YouthQuest, a student-based ministry team that is an extension of Liberty’s Center for Youth Ministry. The skit incorporated backpacks, and students presenting the gospel
at the end of Scaremare were told to highlight the same theme. Brown, who is in charge of the ministry part of Scaremare, including the gospel presentations, highlighted the fact that students who speak have been involved in several youth ministry classes at Liberty and have developed relationships with those who run Scaremare. The students who present the gospel have spent time gaining a favorable reputation before they are given the monumental task of presenting the gospel, Brown said. “We are very selective (about) who speaks,” Brown said. “They are given a script.” According to Brown, Scaremare has recently gained a new direction. The event has been more focused on scaring visitors without using demonic references. Despite the term’s popularity, those running Scaremare prefer that the event not be called a
“haunted house.” “While we understand scripturally that there is the spirit world, we don’t want to necessarily lean toward using the demonic side in order to do ministry,” Brown said. Scaremare uses death to show those who walk through Scaremare that they are faced with a future after death. “Jesus himself used some heavy preaching to get some reality checks,” Brown said. The staff who works to prepare Scaremare each year has expanded their vision for the future of the event. Brown said he wants to make Scaremare more frightening and put into place the ideas of those who wish to see Scaremare grow. “We would love to see more of our Liberty students (and) other students, getting involved to help, because we have big dreams and … we need more people to help,” Brown said.
Ruth Bibby | Liberty Champion
CLOWNTOWN — The Scaremare staff hopes the event will grow. Brown said in order for Scaremare to be a success in the future, more involvement from Liberty students is needed. To learn more about how to get involved, contact the Center for Christian/
Community Service (CSER) office at liberty.edu/index. WARRENDER is the feature editor.
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