At Singapore’s Jigger and Pony, there’s a sense of travelling back to the ’70s. The wood-panelled bar is minimalist and moody — a place for conversation over a well-made drink. When the bar took over The Bombay Canteen in February 2024, it served up a stellar Espresso Martini, but in a departure from the restraint of the original space, the setting was a party, complete with a live band. Soon after, when I was in the Lion City, I was compelled to revisit the bar for that martini (and to see for myself why Jigger and Pony has consistently been on Asia’s 50 Best Bars list), and the drinking experience was completely different from my party night out in Mumbai.
A snippet of Singapore in Bombay.
The list of bars that have popped up in India over the last few years is extensive. Malaysia’s Backdoor Bodega, Mexico’s Handshake Speakeasy, Singapore’s Elephant Room, Dubai’s Coya and Angel’s Share, and Employees Only from New York City are just a few. Each brings their cocktails, flair, and international appeal to local bars for one, or two nights only.
As part of The Bombay Canteen’s 10th anniversary celebrations, they are taking over the bar at Hong Kong’s Bar Leone, which was crowned Asia’s Best Bar in 2024. Yash Bhanage, founder and COO of Hunger Inc., The Bombay Canteen’s parent company, recalled meeting Bar Leone’s co-founder Lorenzo Antinori during a trip to Hong Kong for Asia’s 50 Best. He shared, “I knew Lorenzo liked coffee, so I brought him some from Veronica’s coffee.” Months later, after subsequent conversations, Bar Leone played host to a Bombay Canteen chaat and cocktail night in mid-Feb.
For Bhanage, as a restaurant owner, it’s necessary for his team to form relationships — to exchange ideas, keep up with trends, and broaden exposure — and a bar takeover does just that.
What’s the appeal for customers and restaurateurs? How do eateries and bars find global compatriots that share an ethos or some brand DNA? Is it all getting too hard to keep track of? And as a drinker, why bother stepping out, if you know in the coming month there are bars from different corners of the globe coming to your doorstep? Will a drink in India transport you to the bylanes of Shinjuku, or remind you of the quick cocktail stop while looking out at Milan’s Duomo? A meal or drink on holiday has a sense of the otherworldly about it, whereas a cocktail takeover is ultimately, just a fun night out. You’re still stuck in the same traffic on the way to the bar, there are emails and responsibilities and kids and life waiting for you once you’re back home or the next day.
It seems that implicitly, a bar takeover is more about the vibes, with the focus on ensuring that guests have a good time. Vaibhav Bahl, the founder of Conosh — which has brought bars like Bangkok’s Mahaniyom Cocktail Bar to Goa’s Hideaway and Buenos Aires-based Tres Monos to Lair in New Delhi — shares his perspective: “We actually look for people — it’s more of a people business than a product business. It’s not about the cocktails; it’s about the people making the cocktails.” This is because, if the cocktails run out — as they did when I visited Barcelona’s Paradiso during its takeover at Mumbai’s Slink and Bardot — there’s a confidence that the bar team can keep spirits high (metaphorically), even as actual spirits run out. Bahl elaborates, “If the bartenders can still manage to make customers happy by making custom requests, by talking to them, by engaging them in different ways, it surpasses all expectations.”
As a result, many factors are at play when inviting bartenders to serve their tipples to a local market. So, companies like Conosh, The Soul Company, and The Dram Attic have to walk a tightrope. Sure, alcohol brands are pushing to fly bartenders into the country, but there’s still a lot to consider.
What does a guest shift mean for those in the industry? The restaurants, bars, and bartenders — who are aspiring to spots on lists, or keen to keep up with global trends — see these couple of days as a chance to exchange information, build bonds, and showcase the best of what their city has to offer. It’s also a way to build buzz and prestige by association, though industry insiders caution that’s the wrong reason to want to bring in a visiting bar, as social media chatter dissipates quickly. Instead, bars should think about what it adds to the restaurant’s larger beverage program.
Karl Fernandes, the co-founder of SipSavvy, a bar consultancy; and the Bar Head at Kin-Ru in Hyderabad, explains, “That is the thing about guest shifts. It starts with, say, a commercial brand, and they support it. That’s how bartenders network and travel around.” With a cadre of judges, journalists, and self-proclaimed “foodies” flying around the world to sample menus and drinks, a bar in India needs to keep up with evolving trends and techniques being pioneered elsewhere. It’s also a way to widen the horizons of bartenders who spend grueling hours behind the bar day in and day out.
Bhanage of The Bombay Canteen sums up the appeal for a restaurant or bar owner. “It’s an opportunity you can’t miss. Having someone pay for my bartender’s ticket — it’s free travel, but also a chance to go somewhere that he will never have been before,” he says. To that end, he says that during these takeovers none of the founders or other restaurant staff travel. Instead, he wants his team to build connections and deepen bonds with those they’re working with.
Bahl of Conosh notes that it’s also a chance for storytelling. He says, “People come to know, what is the story being unfolded,” in the sense of letting curious drinkers know about their ethos and philosophy. Wasteland, a sustainable bar from Thailand that closed in 2021, had its founder Kitibordee Gov Chortubtim come to Hyderabad in December for a guest shift as a way to test his concept before reopening a physical space in Bangkok later this year. Fernandes of Kin-Ru notes, “The local bar team learned not to overlook their local ingredients while being able to observe how to minimise waste and extract flavour out of things that we usually consider waste, like vegetable peels.”
Ultimately, with liquor brands keen to collapse distances between the drinker and the global array of cocktails available, it’s evident that bar takeovers are here to stay. Despite the many business interests in play, customers can be assured that curators and restaurateurs are keeping the evening’s experience in mind when inviting the world’s best bartenders to get behind their bars.
Words by Aatish Nath.
Illustrations by Veetrag Kumar & Ila Shree.
