Mangalore pubs take a hit

Following the attacks by the Sri Ram Sene at the Amnesia Lounge on Saturday, pub owners across the city are struggling to remain hopeful of recovering their clients.

It's going to be a bleak weekend for Mangalore's watering holes. Following the attacks by the Sri Ram Sene at the Amnesia Lounge on Saturday, pub owners across the city are struggling to remain hopeful of recovering their clients.

HT Image

It was an unusually dull Wednesday for The Liquid Lounge, one of the first cool lounges to spring up in Mangalore. No more than five men huddled over drinks at a table while the staff in polka-dotted uniforms casually watched television and exchanged yarns.

"The business has dipped by almost 35 to 40 per cent. Mangalore is a very small city and word gets around fast," said a spokesperson of the eight-year-old lounge.

The Liquid Lounge management, which also runs Froth On Top, a pub fashioned after Mumbai's Café Mondegar, rued the timing of the attack.

He said, "There is very little for the youth and the tourist in Mangalore, as it is. This is a time when most Mangalore residents are in the Gulf and elsewhere on vacation, and this incident has possibly deprived them of the space to meet and hang out at."

The situation is as bleak at Night Flight, a well-known nightclub in the premises of the Moti Mahal Hotel. "Ours has taken a greater hit by almost 50 per cent because we have a dance floor and a DJ. The number of women coming to the club has dipped to five per cent," said K.M. Hegde, the hotel's front office manager.

However, at Amnesia, a spokesperson insisted that it was business as usual with only a slight dip in the footfall. "We resumed service the next day. I have been receiving calls from regulars assuring us that they will continue to patronise us," he said.