By Sourish Bhattacharyya
For the Aacharoska, the classical cocktail with an Indian
twist (and my personal favourite), for instance, they tried out 28 different
lime pickles with mixologist Shishir Rane before settling for the Maharashtrian
variant. The cocktail, served in a martaban
(as you'd expect pickles to be), as a result, doesn't have the cloying
sweetness that ruins such concoctions -- and that is especially true of the
Deconstructed Moscow Mule, which comes (as it did at its birthplace, the Cock
'N' Bull restaurant on the Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles) in a copper mug with
a pipette of ginger juice to balance the ginger ale's sugar punch. The Screw
Social Driver, meanwhile, arrives in a beaker (specially ordered from Dava
Bazaar, an area in South Mumbai famous for medical and scientific instruments
as well as lab chemicals) with a real screwdriver in tow to remind you of the
drink's origins -- it was apparently invented by American engineers in the
Middle East in the 1940s, as they secretly mixed vodka into cans of orange
juice with a screwdriver, the only equivalent of a cocktail shaker they had at
an arm's length.
QUICK BYTES
WHERE: Hauz Khas Social, Hauz Khas Village
(entrance next to Delhi Art Gallery)
WHEN: 9 a.m. to 1 a.m.
DIAL: (+91) 7838652814
HOW MUCH (MINUS
ALCOHOL): Rs 800 for
two, minus taxes and 10 per cent service charge
STAR RATING: 3-1/2*/5
HAUZ KHAS SOCIAL in not just another new dining space in a
city teeming with options; it's a new experience altogether. It's the first
hangout of the young -- in the capital of Delhi's Youngistan, Hauz Khas Village
-- where bootstrapping start-up entrepreneurs can work through the day, satisfy
their hunger pangs as they go about their day's business, and unwind at the end
of it by stepping into the bar and ordering an unbelievably priced quarter to
be shared with friends and co-workers.STAR RATING: 3-1/2*/5
 |
| The vibe at Hauz Khas Social is such that you'd want to unwind with an Aacharoska (above) or a Screw Social Driver (below) after a day spent with your laptop and your colleagues, your lunch being the humble Social Staff Meal Du Jour |
It's like working in your office cafeteria after some
invisible magic wand has transmogrified it into 8,500 sq. ft. of social space,
cheek by jowl with Firuz Shah Tughlaq's medieval madarsa, yet loaded with
contemporary amenities such as WiFi and an app that lets you order food or
select your music playlist, with the kind of edgy personality you'd associate
with New York's Meat Packing District. Unfinished bare walls, naked bulbs,
recycled furniture, skeletal clamp lights, plush leather sofas and signs in
classical fonts hand-painted by street art guru Hanif Kureshi fall in place
seamlessly to turn conventional restaurant design wisdom on its head.
Anti-design is the Social's design statement.
The menu mirrors this sense of newness, yet it elevates
conventional coffee shop and bar offerings into conversation pieces. Serious thought
has been invested into it by Mumbai-based restaurant entrepreneur Riyaz Amlani,
who's also famous for his Salt Water Cafe, Smoke House Deli and Mocha brands,
his food and beverage honcho, Sid Mathur, and the Social's head chef, Gaurav
Gidwani. Together, they have walked the fine line dividing fun food and kitchen
gimmickry, without falling into the welcoming iron clasp of the latter.
For the Aacharoska, the classical cocktail with an Indian
twist (and my personal favourite), for instance, they tried out 28 different
lime pickles with mixologist Shishir Rane before settling for the Maharashtrian
variant. The cocktail, served in a martaban
(as you'd expect pickles to be), as a result, doesn't have the cloying
sweetness that ruins such concoctions -- and that is especially true of the
Deconstructed Moscow Mule, which comes (as it did at its birthplace, the Cock
'N' Bull restaurant on the Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles) in a copper mug with
a pipette of ginger juice to balance the ginger ale's sugar punch. The Screw
Social Driver, meanwhile, arrives in a beaker (specially ordered from Dava
Bazaar, an area in South Mumbai famous for medical and scientific instruments
as well as lab chemicals) with a real screwdriver in tow to remind you of the
drink's origins -- it was apparently invented by American engineers in the
Middle East in the 1940s, as they secretly mixed vodka into cans of orange
juice with a screwdriver, the only equivalent of a cocktail shaker they had at
an arm's length.
The food menu, similarly, is studded with surprises. You can
order the Pakistani street food staple, anda
shammi burger (with the buns being replaced by pao and the shammi being
plumper than the usual), or make your heart work a little extra after you've
had the fried bacon-wrapped peanut butter-jam sandwich squares served with
vanilla ice-cream, or have a regular daal-chawal
lunch for Rs 150 by ordering the Social Staff Meal Du Jour (notice the inverted
snobbery!), or a Paneer Makhni/Butter Chicken/Andhra Mutton Biryani.
Each page of the food menu is studded with nibbles that will
bring back cherished memories, like the cutting chai with khari biscuits,
which are essentially puff pastries served in Mumbai's Irani cafes; or Bombay
Bachelors, the typically Mumbai sandwich with sliced veggies and masala aloo bhaji topped with mint
chutney and sev; or The Ramesh &
Suresh -- deep-fried Five Star bars served with hot chocolate fudge and vanilla
ice-cream -- named after the two characters who appears in the commercial for
the well-known chocolate brand. But in all this unusualness, there's a unifying
strand -- good taste. It never goes out of fashion.
