Ghantewala

Ghantewala was founded in 1790 by Lala Sukh Lal Jain, a sweet-maker who migrated to Delhi from Rajasthan and first sold mishri mawa, a Rajasthani specialty, before building a reputation across the Mughal court. According to the shop's own oft-repeated history, its name comes from a bell-ringer (ghantawala) at the Red Fort who became a devoted regular customer. The 1857 edition of the newspaper Dihli Urdu Akhbar recorded rebel soldiers from other regions being won over by Delhi's comforts, singling out Ghantewala's sweets by name — one of the earliest documented press references to an Indian sweet shop. Ghantewala continued operating through Mughal rule, British colonial administration and into independent India, drawing visitors including national political figures, before closing in 2015 after 225 years, a closure widely attributed to disputes among family shareholders and the pressures of modern food-safety regulation on a legacy business. Aryan Jain, described as the family's eighth-generation custodian, and Sushant Jain revived the brand, reopening a shop nearby in Chandni Chowk at Maliwara Tiraha Bazar, Katra Shah N Shah, combining the original recipes with updated operations.