Tags
ale, Beer, Ben Johnson, Greg Kroitzsh, microbrewery, Mumbai, nightlife, pub
This one’s a short piece, simply because there are a few zillion things waiting to be written about and I don’t want to deprive you all of the exciting stuff that’s brewing…
And speaking of brewing, just did a quick stop-by (read 2 hours!) at Barking Deer, Mumbai’s brand new beer bar and all-day restaurant that’s soon going to see a lot of action. Why? Because its a great looking place with good food and beer! Not enough? Get this! In a few short weeks, it is going to be Mumbai’s first micro brewery, sloshing out mugfuls of foaming craft beer to the ale-lovers of the city!
The warm, woody interiors of Barking Deer, Mumbai’s first brewpub.
The unassuming entrance to Barking Deer is right behind Blue Frog, Lower Parel, almost hidden behind a large events calender standee. But once you push open the pub door, the antler-like corner beams, and copper brewing vats gleaming wickedly behind the expansive bar, transport you to a large, happy, hunting lodge. As you pull up outback chairs and settle alongside the rough-hewn tables, you can almost hear the horses neighing and hounds barking in the background!!
Despite being ready for more than a year, it has only managed to open a month or so ago, thanks to the usual woes of entrepreneurial food ventures in the city. (Here’s a caustic take on the whole situation – a board-game called ‘R.I.P Mumbai Nightlife’ in Mumbai Boss, devised in sheer frustration during the maximum city’s ‘darkest’ nightlife phase!). Someone in our group even joked about how the authorities were probably trying to figure out if microbrewing was the same as brewing illicit ‘Desi’ or ‘country’ liquor 🙂 Alright Bangaloreans – Chaitu, maybe Arvind and Reshmi, too? – we hear you! You may be far ahead in brewing craft beers, but by what time do you have to drink up your fancy ales and leave the bar? 11 pm, did you say?? We heart you! 😉
Continuing on the bright side of things here in Mumbai, this pub is now open, has a good selection of imported and Indian beers along with interesting menu options of food cooked with beer, and even a few beer-based cocktails that will cool your summer afternoons down nicely!
Cheers to brewmaster Ben Johnson and towering dynamo Greg Kroitzsh, the Bostonian managing partner of owning company Seven Islands Craft Brewery, who stuck to it despite odds and fought hard to give us this good-looking watering hole. May the beer be with you!
Plate-licker’s Wisdom : Teddy, who likes the concept of beer-drinking more than beer itself, had this to say… ‘Ale is well that ends well!’
followtheeatenpath 
Loved the Shandy. Also, Try their interesting Beer-infused version of the Bloody Mary!
And Mumbai is evolving. Woot! Woot!
Raising a super-sized Shandy to that, Nupur 🙂
This trip is pending for-bloody-ever. Must make trip before some half assed legislator shuts it down.
Cheers!
Oh no! I sure hope it doesn’t! Zenzi Bandra shutting down is still hurting, and the fact that another pub, Lagerbay, has opened in the same place makes it all the more a sore point!