North India’s love with whisky is phenomenal but it hasn’t ever shown in the form of whisky bars sprouting up all over town. Although we might be consuming a hefty amount of the world’s whisky, we have just a few whisky bars in Delhi NCR, one being Dramz in Mehrauli which we have tried and written about and the other being the Whisky Samba in Gurgaon. Although most of the restro-bars here store quite a few numbers of single malts and blended whiskies, the premise of a whisky bar goes beyond that. They are meant to have an overwhelming number of brands of the golden tipple as against the other types.
What can you expect at The Whisky Bar?
The Whisky Bar is one of the first ones to impregnate the bastion of microbreweries that abound the Sector 29 market. With over 100 brands planned to be on the shelves, it promises to celebrate whisky like never before. The restaurant is dominated by the 60feet bar which is its heart and soul. Extending from one corner to another, the Bar itself is divided into three sections: the Tiki, Speakeasy and Classics, each pertaining to the type of cocktail that you may want to order. But you need not worry sitting at one corner of the bar and wanting to try out the cocktail from another section. The conveyer belt allows you to order a cocktail far away from the section you’re sitting in.
The bar features two of my favourite bartenders, Gaurav Dhyani who used to tend Grappa at Shangri-La’s Eros Hotel and Chirag Pal, whom I first met at Westin Gurgaon before following Gaurav at his previous attachment. I strike up a conversation with Chirag about my recent love for the Canadian Rye and the work I am doing with Japanese whisky as he pours me a shot of the Hibiki Master’s Select before mixing my favourite Ol’ Fashioned. I ask him how he plans to incorporate some of his previous experience into the cocktails he plans here. “We are planning to create a range of barrel aged and clay pot aged cocktails” he shoots back as he stamps the name of the restaurant on the ice cube. Clay pot ageing is something that comes in from the Polynesian countries and is used extensively in Tiki Cocktails.
I take my Hibiki over to a table as I mesmerise myself in its herbaceous notes as restaurant manager Haroon sits down beside me and tells me what the restaurant has in store for its customers. Not only are there going to be tastings of whisky flights but Single Malt and Bourbon paired dinners are also on the planning board. The menu has a range of bites that you can combine with your whisky including the Achaari Salmon Gravalaux which replaces the smoky flavour of the Salmon with the Achaari flavour while a Mutton Rara Shepard’s pie is also something that you might plan on trying out.
The Whisky Bar is going to be one place that you should be heading to quench our thirst for whisky.
