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30BestBars India awards: Delhi bar is crowned India’s best

Jan 17, 2025 03:10 PM IST

From tequila-fueled innovation to sustainable mixology, the 2024 30BestBars list reveals how India’s cocktail culture is redefining the way we drink.

In case you haven’t noticed, India’s bar scene is changing rapidly. Bartenders are turning into micro-celebs and bar owners; cities such as Hyderabad, Pune, and Shillong are emerging as hubs for cocktail culture, and the drink in your glass has changed beyond recognition (Senor Escabeche at Goa’s spirit-forward Praca Prazeres, for instance, contains tequila, pineapple mostarda, pickle juice, wasabi honey and chilli oil.) This year’s 30BestBars India awards, announced earlier this week in Goa, provide yet more evidence of the transformation taking place at watering holes across the country. Lair, Delhi’s sophisticated speakeasy, was crowned India’s best bar for 2024. Located in Vasant Vihar, and run by Jairaj Singh Solanki, Lair serves innovative cocktails such as Nagpur Valley (vodka, Nagpur liquor, aloe vera and honey) to go along with its pan-Asian- inspired menu.

30BestBars India awards shares top bars across India along with evolving trends seen in cocktail culture. (Shutterstock)
30BestBars India awards shares top bars across India along with evolving trends seen in cocktail culture. (Shutterstock)

Black Gold at Lair.
Black Gold at Lair.

Other top bars in the 2024 list include Bangalore’s Bar Spirit Forward (#2) and Soka (#3), Delhi’s Sidecar (#4), and Goa’s Hideaway (#5). Mumbai dominates the Top 30 list with eight bars, followed by New Delhi with six, Goa and Bangalore with five each, and Gurgaon with two. Hyderabad debuted with one bar, alongside single-bar entries from Pune, Kolkata, and Jaipur.

The Southern Star at Bangalore's Bar Spirit Forward.
The Southern Star at Bangalore's Bar Spirit Forward.
Interior of Bar Spirit Forward.
Interior of Bar Spirit Forward.
Interior of Hideaway in Goa.
Interior of Hideaway in Goa.

Started in 2019, 30BestBars India, founded by Vikram Achanta, CEO of drinks consultancy firm Tulleeho, and MW magazine’s Radhakrishnan Nair, is the country’s premier bar and bartender ranking platform. Each year, the 30BestBars team, which includes about 250 industry experts, bar enthusiasts and writers, spends time at hundreds of bars across the country – about 500 bars were in contention for 2024 – before whittling the list down to the top 30 and gaining, in the process, deep insights into the country’s evolving cocktail culture.

Here, Achanta shares some of the most compelling ones gleaned from this year’s list with the Hindustan Times.

Trends in cocktail culture

Innovation is king: Creative bar concepts are on the rise and bars such as Arijit Bose’s Outrigger and Pankaj Balachandran’s Boilermaker are proof. The Bar Outrigger, perched on an outcrop off the Arabian Sea, in Dona Paula, Goa, is focused on rum, while Boilermaker, in Siolim, is inspired by Goan beach shacks and serves drinks such as the Biso-Manana Karamel, which is made with Moira bananas and dukshiri, a feni flavoured with sarsaparilla. “Soka, in Bangalore, had a ‘vasna’ cocktail menu, which was an ode to the aromas of Bangalore. It featured cocktails that approximated the taste of curd rice, or incense smoke, or even the aroma of cigarette smoke on Church Street, and none of these were gimmicky,” says Achanta.

Bartenders turn bar owners: Bartenders are not just launching their own bars, but also setting up consultancies to help others get into the game, says Achanta. “They have skin in the game now, and that really helps because they understand the scene much better and are able to create that elusive vibe in their bars.” India’s top bartenders, such as Bose, Balachandran’s Countertop and Soka’s Avinash Kapoli provide 360-degree services that are really helping create top bars not just in cities such as Bangalore, but also in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. “Until about a couple of years ago, Bangalore was more of a beer-drinking city, but now the tide is turning rapidly.”

Dr Batra’s Martini at Soka in Bangalore.
Dr Batra’s Martini at Soka in Bangalore.
Soka in Bangalore.
Soka in Bangalore.

The young and the spirited: Gen Z and younger millennials are largely the people behind the blooming of cocktail culture in India, says Achanta, and their drink of choice is tequila, which is reflected in the popularity of tequila-based cocktails such as the picante. “Agave and tequila are trending, and the typical tequila drinker is starting up at about 25. Since they have a certain degree of affluence, they are drinking top-shelf tequilas.”

Think local, drink local: The Ivory Club at the Hyatt Regency in Thiruvananthapuram picked up a special award for sustainability, which is steadily becoming a focus area for many bars. Ivory Club uses local ingredients such as nannari (sarsaparilla) and ramacham (vetiver) in its cocktails. Similarly, in Goa, The Lab at Amaraanth champions hyper-local sourcing. Its signature Red Amaraanth uses the local tambdi bhaji or red spinach, while waste and surplus products are turned into cordials and preserved through fermentation. “We are in the third year of the Sustainability award, and there were about ten to 15 entries this year. I’m hopeful of that number increasing in the future,” says Achanta.

Eastern sunrise: Kolkata and, to a certain extent, Shillong are producing some notable bars. The 2024 list saw Kolkata’s AM PM come in at #22, while Little Bit Sober is rated as a bar to watch. Shillong’s Shad Skye (#48), which uses ingredients from across the North East, including black rice from Manipur and indigenous berries, is also highly rated. These bars don’t exist in isolation and are reacting to evolved consumers, says Achanta.

Little Bit Sober in Kolkata.
Little Bit Sober in Kolkata.

The rise of zero-alcohol cocktails: This year’s award for the best non-alcoholic cocktail menu was picked up by Mumbai’s perennially-packed Bandra Born (#28), and bars are realising that from a sheer business proposition perspective, targeting the teetotaler or the designated driver has its rewards. “They are treating these individuals as regular guests and instead of offering a soft drink, they are creating special cocktails for them,” says Achanta. “The Royal Vega, a vegetarian restaurant at the ITC in Chennai, earned 40 lakh from their mocktail menu over six months, and that’s serious money.”

ALSO READ: Try these funky vodka cocktails for this party season and clink on a colourful high

Interior of Lair in New Delhi.
Interior of Lair in New Delhi.

The top 30 Indian bars

  • Lair, New Delhi
  • Bar Spirit Forward, Bangalore
  • Soka, Bangalore
  • Sidecar, New Delhi
  • Hideaway, Goa
  • ZLB23, The Leela Palace, Bangalore
  • Cobbler & Crew, Pune
  • Americano, Mumbai
  • PCO, New Delhi
  • HOME, New Delhi
  • Slow Tide, Goa
  • Copitas, Four Seasons Hotel, Bangalore
  • Comorin, Gurgaon
  • The Library Bar, The Leela Palace, New Delhi
  • The Bombay Canteen, Mumbai
  • Muro, Bangalore
  • AER Lounge, Four Seasons Hotel, Mumbai
  • Hoots’, New Delhi
  • Ekaa, Mumbai
  • Slink & Bardot, Mumbai
  • Grumps, Goa
  • AM PM, Kolkata
  • Room One, Goa*
  • Bandra Born, Mumbai
  • Native Cocktail Room, Jaipur
  • RÜ, Hyderabad
  • Masque, Mumbai
  • PCO, Mumbai
  • Cocktails & Dreams, Gurgaon
  • Petisco, Goa

ALSO READ: Gur + booze is a combination you cannot refuse; here are 3 jaggery infused cocktail recipes to warm you up this winter

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