.jpeg "What to count on from Chennai’s newest pubs post-lockdown")
From Royapettah to Velachery, the town has seen a rush of post-pandemic bar launches, flaunting craft cocktails, big sports activities screens and creative menus
From Royapettah to Velachery, the town has seen a rush of post-pandemic bar launches, flaunting craft cocktails, big sports activities screens and creative menus
Chennai Star Club
The Wild Garden Cafe at Amethyst has at all times been in style for its enjoyable oasis of greenery, the place clients can eat crepes amid hidden lotus ponds. Now, it’s busier than ever earlier than as you possibly can add a glass of wine to your meal, courtesy the not too long ago established Chennai Star Club in an enclosed phase of the primary constructing.
The newly acquired, restricted liquor licence implies that some components of the property now have the wherewithal to serve some quintessentially Chennai concoctions, dreamt up by bartender Sakthi Dasan. Consider a drink of white rum, sugarcane juice, and freshly muddled ginger, balanced nicely sufficient that the sugarcane refreshes you proper earlier than the rum hits. Or heady minty nannari mojitos, watermelon martinis, or Earl Grey tea-based vodkas.
Inside the membership, these with membership playing cards can lean again on 40-year-old picket furnishings and stare upon a formidable reprint of a centuries-old Bourne & Shepherd {photograph} of the Calcutta Harbour. Or, have the erstwhile Maharaja of Bobbili looming over your shoulder as you get pleasure from a quiet glass of whisky bitter.
The purple chameleon cocktail
The Purple Chameleon
The Purple Chameleon in in Phoenix MarketCity, Velachery, in the meantime, is all about bells and whistles. An innocuous door on a daily hall of the mall leads inwards to a sudden riot of lights and hues. Inside, neon flamingoes jostle for house with equally shiny popular culture signage; cocktails include billows of smoke entrapped in bubbles; and DJs give attention to heightening your buzz with their beats. It is an area of excited dialog and raucous laughter — if you wish to recline quietly and dissect the finer flavours of a dainty dish, The Purple Chameleon isn’t for you.
And but, loads of thought has gone into the menu: there are 13 signature cocktails. These embody the namesake purple chameleon: a heady concoction that makes use of gin infused with the blue peaflower, in style for its means to alter color from blue to purple. It is available in a transparent spherical vessel that gushes smoke, balanced gingerly atop a white disk whose rim is alight with colors.
Glitz apart, the concept is to usher in flavour notes of various components of the nation, “which is why each of these cocktails has an ingredient representing a different state. Our black buck cocktail, for instance, features mustard-infused tequila,” explains mixologist Nitin Tiwari.
Chakli chaat at The Purple Chameleon
Chef Navin Prasad’s meals is playful differently, with twists on every thing from regional road meals to Japanese fried hen, karaage. A chakli chaat includes sev, curd and boondi, served on a thick, crunchy chakli or murukku as a substitute of papdi. The base is uncompromisingly sturdy, the flavours match, all of it simply — suits. The barely dry karaage, nonetheless, is extra batter-crust than hen, and must be rescued by a wonderful onion sauce. A nice shock is the til-wali macchi: small chunks of oh-so-soft fish coated in sesame seeds and cooked within the tandoor. The delicate flavours are punctuated by sudden kicks of mustard. Desserts, like rum-soaked gulab jamun served in a pool of creamy rabri, are over-zealous with alcohol. Balance isn’t the sturdy go well with right here, however who cares? It’s all good enjoyable anyway.
A cotton candy-topped cocktail at The Void, Anna Nagar, in Chennai
| Photo Credit: R Ravindran
The Void
The Void, in the meantime, has quiet leisure in thoughts. There is a DJ console, however the sound system has been deliberate to permits simple dialog. On weeknights particularly, the three-storey house is all about sitting again and kicking again.
With a sports activities bar on the primary flooring, a stay music lounge (that hopes to host traditional rock, retro and unique indie acts) on the second flooring, and a yet-to-open rooftop, The Void is among the many newest makes an attempt at bolstering Anna Nagar’s nightlife.
Old-school rock music hits the precise spot, cocktails are well-balanced (if a tad underwhelming), and the dinner menu shines with its oh-so-soft pates and kebabs. Try the mind scramble, heady with curry leaf and chillies, and the comfortingly delicate Japanese bowl with rice that’s simply this facet of sticky.
Food at The Void, Anna Nagar, in Chennai
| Photo Credit: R Ravindran
“Anna Nagar does not have a separate space dedicated to screening Formula One races, tennis matches and the like. That’s what we want our sports bar to be, while the upper floors are for regular mingling with long communal tables and music gigs,” says co-founder Varun Shreyas.
Middle of NoWhere
Nearby in Mogappair, a second-floor lounge referred to as Middle Of NoWhere is nearly having fun with your meal. The slick house has quietly, unassumingly been creating its personal regular buyer base for the previous three months, although it started operations for almost a 12 months. Helmed by city-based Chef Saravanan, Middle Of NoWhere splits its menu into three classes — Everywhere, Somewhere, and Nowhere (besides right here), based mostly on the place you might be prone to discover the dish.
“For example, you might find pulled pork in a few restaurants, but only here will you find a dish that combines baby potato and baby pork — each cooked separately, but brought together with a Hollandaise sauce that has been cooked in pork fat. It is one of our most popular items,” states the chef, including, “We have guests who visit Chennai regularly, and come here straight from the airport to dine on this dish before checking in.”
Both meals and cocktails are frill-free and engaging, made by a staff that clearly is aware of what it’s doing. Further to its credit score, Middle Of NoWhere additionally has a budget-friendly starter menu, with dishes for ₹79, which can be simply as nicely made. NoWhere else are you able to order a street-style, completely smooth kalaki and pair it with an exuberantly candy peanut-based cocktail.
The bar at Sekhmet, Chamiers Road, Chennai
Sekhmet
At the opposite finish of the spectrum is Sekhmet, a three-storey prime property on Chamiers Road. With a glittering bar, murals of the Egyptian goddess of warfare Sekhment, and 25-foot display screening sports activities, motion pictures and DJ units to 700 visitors seated at a number of ranges, the house screams “rich and loud” — dialog isn’t an possibility.
Sekhmet has discovered its flock inside six days of opening. Weeknights are abuzz and weekends are packed, says proprietor Ashok Kumar, not the least due to chef Amit Kumar’s deft dealing with of seafood. His oyster thermidor and chimichurri prawns make for uncommon fare, however what he’s most pleased with is his chukandar ka silbata tikka: a betroot-based dish with a pate’ like consistency. “And my tres leche is a good sweet note to end on,” he provides with a smile.
Source: www.thehindu.com
