A new bar honours the drinking culture of India
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The month-old bar Bombay Daak in Mumbai champions the spectacular diversity of India’s drinking culture. Its menu is inspired by local dive bars, gymkhanas as well as drinking traditions in families across communities.
“A friend of mine is from the Sindhi community. In her family, Sundays were all about enjoying whisky and her mother would make dal pakwan flavoured with a chilli. On our menu, we have a dish with hot gram inspired by it.
We have mixed in the quintessential drinking snack daal mooth too," shares chef and co-founder Niyati Rao. Each drink and food item reflects multiple inspirations with the chef’s signature creative twist. Indian food was reimagined for the modern diner with the opening of Indian Accent in New Delhi in 2009.
It spawned a generation of chefs and restaurateurs who revisited their roots and brought regional diversity in contemporary menus. Now, the focus is on India’s drinking culture. While regional ingredients—from gondhoraj lemon to alphonso mangoes—have entered cocktails, there are just a handful of bars that champion the multi-faceted traditional Indian drinking traditions including foods associated with it.
Last year, the bar Slow Tide opened in Goa and drew inspiration from the many communities who live there. In December, the bar Shad Skye opened in Shillong with a menu dedicated to the North-East. Bombay Daak positioned as an ‘elevated daaru chakna bar’ is the newest entrant.
It has the vibe of a cosy neighbourhood bar with 34 seats. It is the brainchild of the chefs and husband-wife duo Niyati Rao and Sagar Neve. They also run the experimental, ingredient-driven restaurant Ekaa at Fort in Mumbai.
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