As mega brewpubs dominate Bangalore, a new wave of small, intimate bars like Bar Spirit Forward — the coolest hangouts — are redefining the city’s cocktail scene
Bangalore’s drinking culture has been constantly refashioned, reflecting the shifting fabric of the city itself. After the swinging nightclubs of the 1960s and ’70s, like 3 Aces, Amber and Blue Fox, which fitted well into a cantonment town still nursing a colonial hangover, came pubs modelled on the lines of the English original, earning Bangalore (now Bengaluru) its Pub City sobriquet.
Bars which catered to edgy tastes in music followed and Bangaloreans of a certain vintage still miss Purple Haze, Tavern and Styx. There was another wave of stylish lounges and clubs in the early 2000s, Spinn and Zero G setting a trend. The boom in microbreweries that followed pretty much swept away all that came before.
These are vast spaces — some can hold upwards of 1,000 people at a time — resembling Oktoberfest beer tents, but throughout the year. A young working population has taken to these; corporate groups guzzling beer and munching on nachos — apparently the highest selling snack at most brewpubs — are the mainstay of these businesses.
Bar Spirit Forward and Courtyard
Then, along comes a bar that’s deliberately small, eschewing the superlatives of largest, longest, biggest, which were selling points not so long ago. Bar Spirit Forward on downtown Lavelle Road led the way. The snug, warmly-lit space seats only 60 people. Seating includes plush sofas, rattan chairs and stools at the beautifully appointed bar.
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People sitting at the bar counter is a marker of a great bar, according to founder and creative director Arijit Bose, who has a vast experience in the business and is described as a maverick beverage specialist. Welcoming customers to the bar counter enables the staff to form a connection, if only for an evening, with them. Here, they watch technique-forward cocktails such as the Southern Star — tequila blanco, bloom fermented plum and guava, citrus — and the 3 Gin Vesper Martini being shaken, stirred and poured.
Technique-forward cocktails are a hit at Bar Spirit Forward
The particular energy and dynamic of small bars that Bose observed on his many travels abroad while working with various spirit brands is what he has set out to capture here. Highly rated as the drinks are, the small bar experience goes beyond drinks or food. “The room has to feel good enough for customers to become regulars,” Bose says. This is enabled through great service, which can be attentive and personalised when the number of customers is small compared to the crowd in the mega-sized bars.
Whether it’s seating, music volume or service, all effort is directed to ensuring the comfort of customers. This is also the thought process behind Wine in Progress at the Courtyard, where also Bose is a partner, along with Tarini Arun Kumar and Akhila Srinivas. This 16-seater bar strives to do away with the stuffiness and snobbery surrounding wine-drinking. Taking a fun approach, the wine list here is printed Manga-style. The food is Asian small plates, plus thyme butter popcorn.
Soka at Indiranagar has the intimate feel of the hidden bar
Soka: The speakeasy vibe
Soka at Indiranagar came up shortly after Bar Spirit Forward, occupying a mere 530 sq ft. Even if the name sounds Japanese, it is actually a merging of half of the founders’ surnames — Chef Sombir and Avinash Kapoli. Their intent, drawing from their travel experiences, was to create a space with a speakeasy vibe. “But 200-seater bars in Bangalore were calling themselves that, so we decided not to use the description,” says Kapoli.
Still, Soka has the intimate feel of the hidden bar. The real estate had to be optimised and while customers sit almost rubbing shoulders, the lighting has been arranged so that spotlights fall on the table, allowing you to admire your ‘I Blame Jasmine’ cocktail of two gins, aperol, carbonated jasmine cordial.
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Tables have to be booked for two-hour slots, starting at 5 pm, at Soka. “It may sound counterintuitive, but we want customers to drink responsibly,” Kapoli says. Two to three drinks in a span of two hours can be an exercise in both moderation and pleasure.
At Soka, there are about 15 cocktails on offer.
Soka ensures that satisfaction is guaranteed by using premium spirits in their cocktails, poured in full view of customers. The quality-over-quantity thinking extends also to the menu; there are about 15 cocktails on offer, plus a limited food menu with snacks, two main course options and a dessert.
The snacks come in thoughtful small portions to serve tables of two or four. If you order the Chicken Gyoza, for instance, you’ll get two of these to a plate, just enough, allowing you to order and taste a few other dishes, a definite departure from the gargantuan piles of nachos and onion rings that the big bars serve up.
This elegant restraint is evident also in the music, pouring out from subwoofers set into the ceiling. “We want people to have conversations without screaming above the music,” Kapoli says. Most evenings, it begins with upbeat jazz, moving to melodic tech as the night progresses.
There’s nothing low-key in the style of Dali and Gala
Dali and Gala
Dali and Gala, housed in the erstwhile Museum Inn hotel, now refurbished, is a small bar, but there’s nothing low-key in its style. The team of Vipin Raman and artist Siddharth Kerkar that created this space had previously set up Room 1, literally a room in a four-room property in North Goa converted into a bar.
Kerkar had always wanted to create an art-focused bar. During a trip to Europe, hopping between bars, music festivals and art shows, he was particularly taken with one showcasing the works of Dali, his surrealism and his expressions of romance and adultery. “If Salvador Dali were alive today and opened a bar, what would that be? was the thinking behind this concept,” explains Arnold Hou, bar lead.
The low-ceilinged space on the mezzanine floor of the building doesn’t display Dali’s art, but rather weaves his obsessions into the design. There are some 130-plus art pieces packed into the small space. There are visual elements such as rotating heads blowing bubbles and the staff wear clip-on pixie ears. “It’s an ADHD dream,” Arnold says, because you can’t take in everything at once.
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Dali and Gala’s drinks are rather more toned down — great tasting, heavy on technique, but light on garnishes. Their names are naughty or whimsical like Bomb Fuckn Sour (tequila, grapefruit, egg white) and Disco Porn (gin, passion fruit, vanilla, and citrus). The food here is, unusually, Burmese, with dishes like Raw Mango on Crack, the crack being a black rice cracker, and No Fuss Chickpea Fritters.
On an urban landscape where the huge watering hole is an unmissable presence, the small bar arrives as a refreshing alternative. Here, you can order excellent cocktails and have conversations in an intimate setting, away from 1000-seater arenas, sprawling koi ponds, faux bridges and mojito pitchers.
