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SOCIETY AND TRENDS: NIGHTCLUBS
Lifestyle Experiences
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MUMBAI
Music and art find new breeding grounds with karaoke (top), poetry
reading at Athena (top right) and wine appreciation at Olive (below)
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Vidhi Bhartia, Kate Bharucha Students
"The option of hangouts is much wider
now and suddenly you have more coffee bars and new things to do."
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The idea is that
after dinner you don't have to go hunting for a nightclub or pay high
cover charges to sup on music and ambience. So Mumbai restaurants like
the Sidewok and European Asian Indigo are fashioning themselves as "party
destinations" and providing "lifestyle experiences", not
simply being places to eat out. Indigo, with a tea-garden bungalow feel,
has candle-lit lounges, a bar and an eating space spread over two floors.
Athena's strategy is to lure sports and filmstars, besides socialites
and industrialists, the staple fare at any popular Mumbai nightspot. Its
club fees seems to have been fixed with the caviar circuit in mind.
At Rs 65,000 per annum for the most exclusive
membership, it might seem steep, but the 50 memberships on offer sold
out even before the official opening, claims the management. Members paid
for conveniences difficult to come by: guaranteed bookings, free entry
for guests and access to exclusive lounges.
Cuisinista Rashmi Uday Singh views this nocturnal
shift from dingy discos to more eclectic options as the beginning of a
new trend. The success of these modern rendezvous owes itself to the insatiable
"new Indian who wants Manhattan, Paris and London experiences in
his own land". Higher disposable incomes, exposure to TV, the Internet
and increased travelling have created this new genre of Indian-born international
desis.
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CHENNAI
Surprise is of essence at restaurants like Stop At Sam's (top) which
holds talk sessions, even as coffee bars like Qwiky's hold live band
performances |
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Harish Samthani, Former rally driver
and party animal
"Five stars have become monotonous.
These new places are innovative and host a trendy crowd."
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In fact, restaurateurs like the Mumbai-based
Doshi family have even sought inspiration from the joints they visit during
foreign sojourns. And after their New York eatery shut down, an Indian
equivalent was dreamt of. Now, there are three. Karma, a casual Italian
eating place and watering hole, opened three months ago. Above it is Bellisima,
a fine dining restaurant with new world cuisine. Next to it is the Polynesian
flavoured Liquid Lounge with a 30-ft bar serving cocktails, and a live
band playing four to five times a week.
This burgeoning of modernistic hangouts like
lounge bars, restaurant-cum-bars, coffee joints, karaoke nightspots, bowling
alleys-cum-bars, event-centric pubs and offbeat cafes has completely altered
the nightlife profile in cities. Take Delhi. Once thought to be dull and
dorky, it is fast metamorphosing into a city of pubs, corner cafes and
restobars. Panache replaces Punj, and five-star discos are becoming passe,
while the existing hangouts are reinventing in a bid to survive.
When Club Zeros in GK-II opened in 1999, it
was an uninspiring restaurant serving Indian and Chinese food. In December
2000, it was redesigned into a restobar. Manager Kamal Sud claims it is
the first such club in GK-II. "We had to redefine ourselves in the
face of fresh competition," he says. "We realised that people
come in not just for food, but large helpings of fun too." Further
down the same block, Snob, a four-year-old restaurant, shed its penchant
for grub to transform into a pub a year ago. Says Delhi student Priya:
"The service might not compare with the best hotels but, hey, it's
different, it's fun."
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