Reccos Trends

How the best bars are embracing their regional Indian identities

FTAlmanac

November 20, 2025

India’s leading barprenuer Minakshi Singh
checks out India’s most experimental bars
for a taste of culture (and native spirits).
Bookmark her reccos

By Minakshi Singh

When I spoke to Anoothi some time ago, and she asked me to write this piece, my first instinct was “hell, yeah”! I had just got off the plane from the annual National Restaurant Association of India meet in Goa, and it struck me then: There is massive enthusiasm on what’s happening in the alco bev space overall in India— and because of that platforms that built up chefs and restaurants are finally inviting us bar peeps for discussions, seminars, talks, and well, to write! Looks like we’ve finally arrived!

Not only have we arrived but we are slowly but surely finding our voice. An Indian identity in the bar space has always been a complex one to crack. Culturally, “drinking out” was a western concept in India, thanks to our Colonial past. Bars in hotels and private clubs were mostly for the well-heeled (and dominated by men). Then, in the early 2000s, we saw pubs/bars in Bangalore, Goa, Bombay and Delhi come up that were friendly and younger, and yet they were playing western tunes, serving western style drinks and grub. And then slowly something shifted. The first I heard of an “Indian” bar was AD Singh’s Ek Bar in Delhi, showcasing Indian indigenous ingredients like turmeric, tamarind and curry leaves in cocktails– right from prep to presentation, with artwork, storytelling and inspiration from an Indian lens for the Indian consumer. Post that we saw other bars and bartenders experiment and make many incredible cocktails heroes, highlight Indian ingredients, and provenance. But we still didn’t see many bars that proudly owned their Indian identity.

Going back to roots is
now a movement. Indian
ingredients, native
stories, but also cultural
narratives are taking the
spotlight all across

At my bar, Sidecar, and Speaks before that, we made quite a lot of noise globally when we announced our first collaboration with Makaibari tea in 2021, showcasing a rare Summer Solstice tea, only harvested on the day of the solstice (June 21). This was used in cocktails that moved the narrative towards our heritage and our story. The next year, we went bolder with our menu “Dear Delhi” dedicated entirely to Delhi, its locations, and its heritage in a modern context of cocktails. That year when we featured on the World’s 50 Best Bars list, and went to Barcelona, there were many conversations on Indian ingredients in cocktails, and showcasing our heritage. Going back to roots is now a movement in Indian bartending. We are seeing native spirits like feni and now mahua being used in modern mixology. Brand owners like Hansel Vaz of Cazulo have been working tirelessly with mixologists to create experiential modern cocktails. This time, in Goa, I got to taste some delicious cocktails using native spirits at bars like MoFo. What’s special about MoFo is that its owner and bartender Tobais Carvalho, who has worked in Bombay, Dubai and then Delhi, has gone back to his Goan way of life and opened a bar in his own home! He runs it like a classic taverna, with all the works: small bites along with an elevated cocktail programme.

I also got to try some top-notch cocktails at the newlyopened Quinta Cantina, run by Pankaj Balachandran, another ace mixologist, who has brought some great research together to present a bunch of Feni cocktails in a menu that also has great storytelling. The menu features a new feni every few weeks, and the bar offers a guided tasting when you drop in, highlighting the terroir and the village the feni comes from. This draws you into hundreds of years of making feni in Goa using a traditional method, and all its nuances.

Last year, I visited a bar called the Bombay Daak, run by the talented Chef Niyati Rao, which proudly wears the batch of a “daaru and chakna bar”, and captures the vibe of a local, presented in a young contemporary cool way. Similarly, ‘Permit Room” takes inspiration from the Bombay permit rooms, and does a wonderful job of bringing alive nostalgia. Another ace bar that brings the Bombay spirit alive is Bandra Born, drawing from its chef-owner’s Bandra roots. Gresham Fernandes, has played with bold flavours and I, for one, was delighted to see a dedicated mahua cocktail listing, with drinks that only exceptionally confident operators can pull off.

Closer to home, at my own bar The Brook, in Gurgaon, we play with “escapism” as an idea. The entire look and feel is of a log cabin, and the entire food and beverage programme is designed around the Indian Himalayan belt, paying homage to the 13 states that touch the majestic mountains with a hat tip (or should I say Dhaka topi tip) to the produce, techniques, culture, artwork and music of the belt.