Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Good, the Bad the Ugly....Bars Offering Solace


To go to a bar or a nightclub in Delhi in the 80’s you either were a regular or you had a foreign passport. Yes you needed a foreign passport to have a drink outside home in Delhi. No bars, no places to drink. No other option, drink in a park like we did, or across the border in terrible liquor stores and dhabas, in the car at a bar-b-cue joint (open air). What started out as a necessity, slowly became a habit. Also the economics did not help, bars when they did open, were and continue to be expensive. So necessity, habit and economics made the Delhi-wallah the drinker that he is.

Whilst Mumbai always had the umpteen hundred bars offering large, quarter, half or the bottle at your table with free munchies and fish to order at the entry level of the pyramid. Bangalore, Madras , Calcutta, Pune offered an affable drinking climate on each of their MG roads and their equivalent. It was easy to sit and order a drink in a decent bar in each of these places, while Delhi moved in the other direction, seedy clubs with red rexine sofas (South Delhi Club), guest houses (dubious ones like Sartaj opened bars in their premises), farm houses, out of town trips….. the sordid tale continues.

Then in the early 90s, sprung up a few entrepreneurs , who opened bars in standalone restaurants and some watering holes especially at the high end, TGIF at Basant Lok, Tonic at Asia Village Restaurants(by Kwality Restaurants). Slowly wider acceptance and growth with more restaurants that offerered alcoholic drinks. But, Delhi stuck to its grain lets meet at home, have a few drinks and then invariably reach late at a restaurant for dinner, then men folk topped up with a couple of drinks while everyone else ate vinegared onions and drank water. So the theory was, it is too expensive to get drunk (you drink to get drunk right, at least that was the generally prevalent theory) in a bar or a restaurant, so you drank at home, in a car (hence the word carobar). No social drinking, no wine and tapas bars, no single malts, cigars and steaks (the ultimate decadence yet), that was all for the new millennium.

So a decade into the new millennium its 2010, where does the regular sales guy go out for drink. He’s tired of pouring himself a drink the temperature in his Jangpura Barsaati is intolereably hot or cold (depending its mean winter or a mean summer). He is heard of Shalom, Urban Pind and Hard Rock café and Ai. However , its not yet a promotion, not even a hot date… the same stuff, targets , numbers, calls and refusals. Either stop by at the Theka (Liquor Vend), get a half of some dubious sounding vodka name after a Russian Town, Premier or Warlord and get smashed followed by Aanda Parathas (Egg Parathas) a sweaty night in a whirring air cooler. Wait I am told there is 4 S, solace for the salesman.

I had heard of these bars , had seen them, 4S Chinese at Defence Colony, 4S Punjabi at Greater Kailash 2 and 4S Beach at Saket. My Big day at 4S Saket. The place is democratic and it definitely helps with Abhijeet Singh and Sanjay Saini (my friends are regulars there). We had the best of service drinks and hot as hell (spicy Fingerfood). Six of us 4 Beers (Kingfisher), 20 ( Blenders Pride whiskies, albeit small), 5 Vodkas ( Smirnoff, small pour), 5 juices (assorted), 2 portions of Chilly chicken, 1 portion of Keema Kaleji, 1 portion of Murg Malai Tikka, I portion of masala peanuts all For Rs 4029 inclusive of vat and service charges its approximately Rs 670 per head (most of it during the happy hours). You know the funny sounding vodka with some chicken dinner would cost Rs 300/- But drinking out, like we did, would cost a king’s ransom at any of the up market bars masquerading as sports bars where waiters with goaties speak broken English with an accent and muddle up your drinks. Yes Pradeep Kumar, the owner is doing a great service to the people of Delhi and the salesmen brethren community. He started off 10 years ago with 4s in Greater Kailash 2 and is doing a great job getting guys off the street (that’s those drinking on the street) into bar. Cheers to that. That’s The Good.

In my endeavor to visit more places in this genre, I subjected the same friends, Sanjay Saini and Abhijeet Singh to another place. Correct subjected. We were driving back from the ranges, were sweaty, exhausted and tired, let’s go to Friends Colony get a beer. I had this bad idea lets go to this salesman kind of place called Chaska (sounded like a dance bar in Downtown Mumbai). They politely agreed for the adventure, as Sanjay steered his Honda CRV into underbelly Kalkaji, opp Deshbandhu College. Rahul Chaterjee from the web division mischievously guided and talked me into visiting this place, fondly remembering it as an institution for the salesman getting and blowing up his daily, weekly and perhaps monthly incentive, with mouthwatering soya chops across the street. I had to go there.

In we go, directed upstairs (as the bar is upstairs, while on the ground floor is a family restaurant also serves liquor), weak air conditioning, smoke filled (yes smoke, you can smoke in there). Over priced beer and over priced food. Why the heck would anybody subject oneself to this torture, Abhijeet, looking at the menu points out wisely, I know, the reason why this place does well, hard drinks the regulars, whisky, rum vodka are relatively cheap. Relaxed we had decoded the quagmire .The waiter very grimly informs us there are no happy hours, we quickly ordered 5 Beers ( Kingfisher), one portion masala peanuts, one portion finger chips aka French fries with industrial variety pumpkin sauce and one portion of chilly paneer (which would fall in category of dirty chow). Overall, cold beer, bad service and bad snacks, the silver lining we chugged merrily on the cigarettes. While shimmery middle aged women kept walking past us (some function happening somewhere on a hot Sunday afternoon). This was certainly The Bad. Vineet Malik, the owner, please stick to your base business, catering and a pastry shop called TheCcake Factory, in Okhla and Kalakaji Respectively,

And now for the Ugly, You go to your nearest liquor shop, bunch of guys, in a car, buy plastic or Styrofoam glasses, ice on frozen plastic bag, sodas and cold drinks out of an industrial quantity bottle and you are in business with blaring music….. the face takes on ugly grimace, your gait changes, so does your voice, ready for a fight, check out women wherever you see them. God it’s a mind set, hard to break, it’s the way the city did enjoy its drink and continues to do so, ends with an argument at the cop station an interlude with the cops, God bless if these guys see, girls from the North Eastern states hurrying home with bread and eggs, that’s the true and ugly face of drinking in Delhi. That is The Ugly.

Ends at a Aanda Paratha joint with a Chotu from Utarakhand who is generously abused and sometimes generously tipped. Brings in steaming hot Aanda parathas at Moolchand, ITO, Hauz Khas and all night drunken stupor eating places. Call it Nandu, Saleem, Qureshi the story is pretty much the same .

Do you have an interesting Bar story… Happy to hear it. Cheers !
So Long !

34 comments:

Unknown said...

For whatever reason, the pics didnt open on my office internet connection.

Interesting read, but really really was hoping for more extensive database of places where one can get masala peanuts with 'drinks' in Delhi.... Guess i was being a bit greedy. :)

My fav budget waterin hole is Flames in GK2 - however last sat when i went there, it didnt have the usual KK, Mika songs playing out... I was informed that DJ didnt come hence no music today. I ended up actually asking him FM chal sakta hain kya.. It was a Sat evening mind you, and they were ok with no music. And yes u get masala peanuts there.

But i still miss Janta Bar (Pali Hill Market, Bandra) kind of places in Delhi. Janta is a Janta place where u get awesome food, and the next person walking in sits in the next available 'seat', can be next to you on your table... and it was voted in 2007 as the top 10 bars in Mumbai.

will keep visiting your page to find more comments about places like these in delhi... and gurgaon...

Samil said...

Thanks Sudarshan for your encoraging comment, Yes Mumbai has a better and easy drinking culture and Janta bar is favorite too ( I used to live very close in my two long sojourns in amchi mumbai).

Thats the point the whole post is about lack of a definitive and evolved drinking culture in the Capital. Flames used to nice and cheap, of late its gone to seed with a funny toilet smell as you enter. I used to like it too.

Masala Peanuts--- Sam's bar welcomes you most evenings.
Cheers,
Sam

Ajay Gupta said...

indeed an interesting read.....relived my old days in just a moment........yes, i still remember going to Aya Nagar (Delhi-Gurgaon border on MG road) to catch a chilled Thunderbolt or a Godfather.

Thanks, looking for more in Gurgaon and around.

Ajay Gupta

Samil said...

Hey Ajay, Thanks. I am sure all of us have an interesting bar tale or drinking tale. Thunderbolt, Godfather sure.
Gurgaon is drinkers haven, only because the laws are easy and any one can set up a drinking place (also called Aahaata in Punjabi), liquor shop, your order sodas snacks and pay for the food and service). There is famous one on the Golf Course road near the Hewitt office called Machaan, I am sure there are may others.
Cheers Sam

Alisa-Foodista said...

Samil,you have a wonderful blog! I followed you from the foodie blog roll and I've enjoyed reading your posts. I look forward to reading more :)

Samil said...

Alisa-Foodista,

Thanks for the encouragement. I loved your post eating my through Iceland. Thanks and All the best.

Warm regards,

Samil

Anonymous said...

Man o man !! You just opened the doors to an array of memory events from my time in India.I will start with the recent trip to India when my childhood buddy and I got wasted on "just" several ounces of Indian beer (which I dig in the whole wide world) at a local bar in Mahipalpur. They had great kabobs and a ghazal singer.I had a midnight flight and was not driving and so no worries. And then the time when I was a student in Madras and there used to be an area next to every wine shop where you could drink what you bought. And there used to be a couple of stray dogs waiting to pick up whatever was thrown at them. In Calcutta there used to be two bars in Bhowanipore - Green Palace and Tripty. While GP was high end for us at that time, Tripti appeased us with Vazir - a beer which was rarely to be found in most bars at that time.Recently when we were in NY, I got hold of some Hayvards and I went crazy. Wrote about it here ....

http://lebblogs.wordpress.com/2010/05/09/revitalize-in-nyc-a-spring-day/

Single malt, cigar and steak is fine indeed, but to me a fairly good bar in India (the Rs 4000/- kind) with all the Indian food is over the top. No chips, or pretzels or wings come any close to masala peanuts.I could go on and on. Maybe I will do a post on this. All said and done, I miss doing what you did - break loose over all kinds of alcohol with friends ... in India. Sorry about the long comment. Your post just brought out the longing in me !! Loved it ...!!

Unknown said...

Hi Ajay,

Barrique in DLF Phase 3, Cyber City Building No. 3 has a World Cup Offer of 6 KF or Foster's pints for 375. I think its the best deal to get.(even though there are no masala peanuts- Samil have taken note of your invite, will soon encash the voucher:)

Btw, wed evenings u need to reserve a table as there is some LIVE music when match is not on...

regards

Samil said...

Thanks Sudarshan. Will try it once I am in Back. Meanwhile trying to explore what 2 USD can buy u in USA. We are at Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon. Will probably watch the finals with you.
Cheers.
Sam

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