Nested bars are like a chef’s table for cocktail aficionados—encouraging conversations, one-on-ones with mixologists, and the chance to nerd out over drinks
Anjuna beach. A hammock over the sand. The setting sun. Waves crashing below. This is Pisco by the Beach, a sundowner spot known for its boho vibe and good seafood. Once night falls, a wooden door opens at the corner of the restaurant, leading into a private sitting room with a noticeable change in atmosphere and sound—not quite silent, but filled with the low cadence of conversation and music. This is After Dinner, a cocktail bar sharing the same view as Pisco, but offering a complete change of pace.
Welcome to the new experience in India’s ever-evolving bar scene: the nested bar. Small as their name suggests, and intentionally intimate, these sometimes one-room spaces are tucked away in lofts, basements, and back rooms in existing restaurants and bars.
Globally, the name for these bars is the very dry dual-concept spaces. But the idea is the same: sibling spaces under one roof that offer guests one-on-one access to the bartender and mixologists, personalised attention, and an exclusive cocktail and food menu. Think of it as a chef’s table, but for the bar.
“As bartenders, we also crave a room that’s just about drinks,” says Neil D’Souza, founder of Goa’s Slow Tide, who calls their nested bar, the 24-seat Stoned Pig, ‘a second personality’. “It honestly comes from wanting to do two things in the same space without diluting either,” he adds.
India Embraces the Concept
In the last year, India has embraced the concept. Delhi’s Barbet & Pals has Cavity doing a nine-seat, nine-course cocktail tasting, and Olive in Mehrauli has the four-seater The Hidden Club. Mumbai’s Slink & Bardot now houses Koliwada Cocktail Club (KCC) offering a six-course savoury cocktail tasting menu. Bengaluru’s Una Hacienda has The Bunker Room, and the Leela Bengaluru’s ZLB23 has The Theatre. In Goa, The Second House opened Bartender’s Bunker, their experimental cocktail space turned lab, and coming soon is Bar O at Bar Outrigger, a four-seater space to explore techniques and ingredients.
In Mumbai, the 25-seater KCC is hidden from Slink & Bardot by a velvet curtain, and painted in deep blue with plush seating and fishing nets as décor. “A great cocktail bar should create space for slower drinking, meaningful conversations, and a deeper appreciation of the craft behind every drink,” explains partner-founder Vicky Singh, for whom KCC fills a gap in the market.
The Experience
The nested bar puts on “shows”—drinks served as a multi-course meal, with visual aids and a narrative story. “Instead of simply serving a drink, we take guests through its inspiration, ingredients, process, and philosophy, making them part of the experience,” says Suchismita Roy Chowdhury, the restaurant and bar operations manager.
The menus here are heavy on technique and storytelling, and most serve a cocktail tasting menu. Cavity offers a two-and-a-half-hour, nine-course cocktail tasting menu focusing on India’s GI ingredients. KCC has a six-course liquid ‘dinner’, starting with an amuse-bouche and ending with dessert—namely, savoury cocktails such as Sushi and Tamales. The Bunker Room seats 8-10 people and does a four-course cocktail omakase.
Facetime with the Bartender
A nested bar isn’t to be mistaken for a secret bar. The latter offers a ‘hidden’ experience where access can often be exclusionary. Nested bars are open to all; the space merely allows for an unbridled creativity that the main bar cannot replicate.
“With these bars, you can get into the thinking and nerdiness around the drink, while also cutting away from the noise,” says Somanna Muthanna, founder and CEO, The Soul Company. “It’s an option that didn’t exist before.”
This ‘facetime’ is a big draw with customers. “In a bigger bar, you cannot get an in-depth perspective on the drinks,” says Palki Hatangadi, a Bengaluru-based fashion retail professional. “It adds to the cocktail drinking experience: you are improving what you know and how you understand the drinks.”
Smaller Groups, Better Conversations
Access to a nested bar is all about intention and, of course, money. The multi-course cocktail tastings start from approximately ₹2,000 to ₹4,000 per person and can go up to ₹8,000.
“How people spend their night has changed. They want smaller groups, better conversations, and want to pay more attention to what they’re drinking,” says D’Souza of Slow Tide. “These spaces work because they respect that shift.”
The customers are a mixed bag too, and span age groups—usually well-travelled people who have experienced cocktail bars around the world, and appreciate craft and storytelling. “At KCC, we’ve had everyone from industry professionals and cocktail enthusiasts to creatives, and entrepreneurs,” says Singh. “What they tend to have in common is a willingness to engage, to ask questions, to spend time understanding what’s in the glass rather than just ordering a familiar drink.”
As Muthanna sums it up: “These bars make it possible to geek out over cocktails.”
