Submarine Lounge.
It is often said of west Delhi that the neighbourhood is as familiar with subtlety and polish as Arnab Goswami is with silence and self-restraint. The area’s unapologetically loud and in-your-face character is best represented on Club Road in Punjabi Bagh, a 1.5 kilometre stretch dotted with over a dozen bars, lounges, cafes and a Bollywood Biistro (their spelling, not ours). Unlike posh south Delhi establishments with their no-kids-after-7pm policies and hip English and electronic music, Punjabi Bagh’s Bollywood remix-playing nightspots are open to one and all, from hookah-smoking collegians to booty-shaking grannies. To find out exactly just how wild this neighbourhood can get, we went on a Punjabi Bagh pub crawl over two weekends.
At the start of Club Road is Mafia, a gangster-themed bar and lounge. The night we went by, the DJ, standing in the front of a ‘Welcome to the Mob’ sign, was belting out 1990s Punjabi pop ‘classics’ such as Stereo Nation’s ‘Nachange Saari Raat’ and Sukhbir’s ‘Ishq Tera Tadpave’. Murals depicting gangsters adorn the walls. Mafia’s clientele comes from neighbouring areas like Paschim Vihar, Rajouri Garden and north Delhi, said Saahil Gupta, owner or, as he likes to call himself, Head Mafia.
A couple of Saturday nights ago, its two floors, which can together accommodate about 80 people, were packed. The dimly lit first floor caters to families who want dinner, while the second houses the DJ console and bar counter. The terrace, which is surprisingly free from the trappings of gangsterville, is meant for those looking for “total peace” and presumably, a smoke. The bar’s inclusiveness extends to the playlist; the DJ “adjusts the music to the crowd at that particular time”, said Gupta. “Basically what we do is BDM – Bollywood dance music.”
Step out of Mafia, tilt your head up at the sign across the street, and you will se a fluorescent blue and pink moving speedometer with the words Raftaar – High Speed Bar and Lounge. This two-month-old car and motorbike-themed venue is the newest addition to Club Road. Spread over three floors of a five-storey building, it’s also the biggest of them all. “Everybody needs speed in their lives,” said owner Vineet Mittal who told us that the bar has been attracting a capacity crowd of 350 people and that his customers include the occasional south Delhi visitor.
The first level has a speedometer-studded bar counter, off-white couches, a dance floor behind which is a giant LED screen, and three private tables that are concealed with a floor-to-ceiling mural of the Audi logo. The second floor, decorated with posters of emblems of luxury car brands such as Aston Martin, Rolls Royce and Ferrari, houses the DJ booth and sofas that violently vibrated every time the music was turned up. To set Raftaar apart from the competition, Mittal will soon launch, on the rooftop, an 18 feet by 12 feet “infinity swimming pool” complete with shower facilities, cabanas and a vintage car-themed table for four.
During our brief visit, a bunch of 20-somethings were doing the bhangra to Badshah’s recent remake of ‘Kala Chashma’, Jazzy B’s ‘Dil Luteya’ and Hard Kaur’s ‘Ek Glassy’ while the LED screen behind them beamed an India-West Indies T20 cricket match. Somewhat less audacious is Submarine Lounge, an 18-month-old establishment with a submarine deck-shaped bar counter. We were there on “DJ night” during which a female vocalist was crooning a cover of ‘Ik Kudi’ from Udta Punjab as groups of friends smoked sheesha and families feasted on tandoori chicken with toddlers in tow. Sadly, the singer’s talents were largely unnoticed. She attempted to involve the crowd by urging them to sing along with her to Kailash Kher’s ‘Teri Deewani’ but got a tepid response.
The Villain Cafe.
As we ordered our drinks, a waiter wearing an LED name badge on his T-shirt informed us that Friday nights are reserved for “belly dancing”. Next, we tried entering The Villain Cafe whose doorman told us that the place was full and so we decided to continue our crawl the following weekend. We returned the next Saturday, only to find that it was almost empty. In one corner, a family of four was eating dinner while the couple seated at the table next to them got up to slow dance to Punjabi pop. The Villain Cafe’s interior decorator has done justice to its name. Outside, a yellow and black “crime scene” sticker frames one of the walls next to the entrance where ropes akin to the hangman’s noose fall from the ceiling to the floor. Inside, the walls are predictably plastered with quotes from famous movie villains like The Joker and Don Corleone.
What impressed us most about The Villain Cafe was how well they knew their patrons. On each table, alongside the hookah, was a ‘Powerful Villain’ menu listing protein shakes in flavours including chocolate, strawberry, vanilla and egg, as well as two protein pancakes. In any other bar in any other part of Delhi, this might have seemed out of place but Punjabi Bagh’s bars are frequented by buff men wearing tight T-shirts who, presumably, have just finished working out at Ozone, the gym located a few meters away.
It soon became clear to us that, apart from beefy men, there are a few other ubiquitous things on Club Road: women wearing cocktail dresses, heavy make-up and high heels; SUVs with their car stereos at full blast. There are commonalities between the watering holes as well. They open at lunch time and offer multi-cuisine menus with everything from Thai curry to kebabs and burgers, and sheeshas in flavours like rose, paan and blackcurrant.
Their biggest draws perhaps are that they are relatively light on the pocket, with a pint of Kingfisher priced at Rs200 before tax, and have a door policy that welcomes all, from joint families to stags. For instance, at Bollywood Biistro, a restaurant whose walls bear posters of quotes from Hindi films such as Agneepath, a grandmother, mother and toddler were shaking a leg to Yo Yo Honey Singh ‘Aaj Blue Hai Pani Pani’. The owners seem to be reserving their imaginations for the themes, attempting to outdo each other in their innovativeness. The more bizarre, the better is the guiding principle. Coming soon to Punjabi Bagh: Hawalat by Gautam Gambhir, a jail-themed restaurant endorsed by the batsman.
Aayush Soni is a journalist based in New Delhi. Follow him on Twitter @aayushsoni.