Bar design | under the hood of 5 cocktail dens in India

You may contemplate going all the option to JSan in Goa to get Chef Vishesh Jawarani’s tackle Japanese Izakaya (actually stay-drink-place), or to Crackle Kitchen in Bengaluru to discover omakase. But you can not get into Chennai’s MadCo. until you cross the check, and likewise at Zorawar Kalra’s Mamma Killa, Delhi’s first Aztec-themed members-only bar. Chef-steered experiences and curated menus elementary to the 2025 resto bar, in addition to the small plates with drinks typical of Tokyo’s Izakaya tradition, have advanced distinctive bar themes and hospitality design.

Aiming for guests to decelerate, mingle, and be indulged, from cosy 22-seaters to bustling 400-plus, designers fuse international and Indian developments for an viewers wanting elevated experiences.

Architect Ashiesh Shah elaborates, “Bars today are experiential spaces. Five years ago, the focus may have been more on functionality and glamour; today, it’s storytelling, mood-building, and emotional connection. They’re no longer taboo but rather cultural venues. There’s a shift towards creating bespoke, curated environments where design plays a central role in how the space feels, not just looks. It’s also about inclusivity — welcoming different people into a space that respects craft, context, and community.”

An inbuilt brick seating with partition wall that ensures airflow and is surrounded by a serene koi pond.
| Photo Credit:
Arjun Krishna

MOAI, Hyderabad

Architect: Vikram Singh Minhas

Spread throughout a sprawling 24,000 sq. ft. in Hyderabad’s Financial District, MOAI is a 450-seater resto-bar designed by Vikram Singh Minhas to ship twin experiences: refined high quality eating by day and a high-energy bar by evening. The theme, impressed by the boulders in the pure panorama of the area in the metropolis’s outskirts, attracts from the monumental Moai statues of Easter Island, lending to the larger-than-life aura of the area. Catering to the quickly rising hospitality scene in the neighbourhood, the design by Minhas is a 450-seater crowd pleaser. While the audience is above the age of 21, individuals of all ages wind up at MOAI, the place fastidiously crafted culinary journeys and a vibrant atmosphere come collectively. Most of all, it’s the return to nature that evocatively unfolds in the natural structure. Natural parts like quarry-cut stone partitions, granite flooring, and a 150-foot-long glass facade join company to the lush outdoor, whereas a tranquil koi pond and inbuilt brick seating that enables pure airflow, evoke serenity — a response to post-pandemic cravings for open, breathable environments.

Varied zones break down the huge area into intimate retreats. Discreet gray drop-down cylindrical lights concentrate on the meals. Towering above are Moai sculpture heads, some as much as 15 toes. Made of FRP by native artist Ranga, they mimic stone faithfully — proper to the luxurious textures and hues — creating visible drama.

Minhas attributes the important elements contributing to the evolving area of high quality eating and drinks as the need for immersive experiences. And each shoppers and the viewers are prepared to pay for it. Clients have additionally turn out to be extra exploratory, which provides designers a free rein to experiment. Further, the typical customer in the present day is a worldwide traveller, and so they include a wider sense of appreciation for extravagant detailing. As Minhas places it, “Most people come in and remark — I don’t feel like I’m in Hyderabad.” This is the very spirit behind the drink and dine vacation spot — to be transported elsewhere.

 The bar at MadCo. with a starry sky impact. from 1000’s of fairy lights ensconced in wood modules.
| Photo Credit:
MadCo.

MADCo., Chennai

Madras Cocktail Company, popularly often called ‘MadCo.’, opened final 12 months with the concept of a speakeasy bar with restricted entry. Managing Partner Santhosh Zachariah Abraham needed to disrupt the stodgy picture of Chennai with a convivial watering gap the place younger and outdated can come collectively for a high quality eating and ingesting expertise. The afternoon I meet Zachariah, he’s enthusiastically planning a Singles Social Mixer for ages 27 to 40, one thing he says nobody in Chennai has ever completed. “This is a community space, not a commercial bar.”

Zachariah’s 15 years at Bacardi impressed him to create a comfortable haunt for regulars fastidious about the high quality and stability of their drinks.

A fastidiously curated group of well-travelled of us with discerning style, a yen for experimental cocktails and clever menus make MadCo. what it’s — a premium and unique cocktail bar.

Zachariah credit his Founding Partner RVS Kiran for the once-neglected area reworked right into a full of life hub. The 1,000 sq. ft. area is a cleverly refurbished floor flooring with an obscure entrance.

The wow issue is a dimmable ‘starry sky’ made of 1000’s of fairy lights set into wood tubes of various heights that effortlessly conceal unbecoming beams. Mirror and glass vie with sensibly tiled flooring to make a splash. The nook bar has a fluted wooden entrance and a countertop of concrete and epoxy that may take any spill.

The expertise of mixology is core to the design. Under a shiny curved ceiling, a vacuum-sealed pouch with fruit and spices simmer in a sous vide course of for a banana oleo-saccharum (a syrup extract) for MadCo.’s customized cocktails.

Copper-clad desk tops marry chairs coated with svelte pale yellows, duns and leaf inexperienced lending to a wise and purposeful eating area, with cosy tables and chairs for 2, benches throughout couch-seaters paired for 4, and bar-style high-chair set-ups for six. Touch lamps full the intimate really feel at tables.

Designed for 65, the bar can take as much as 75. MadCo. stands as a daring, nuanced reminder of the curious combine of outdated Madras and fashionable Chennai — in spirit, style, and magnificence.

At Ru — an extract of the phrase ‘ruin’ — that intent grew to become an architectural homage to the website’s rugged boulders, evocative of how monuments age. 
| Photo Credit:
The Linespace Studio

Ru, Hyderabad

Architect: The Linespace Studio

When The Linespace Studio was commissioned to design a resto-bar for as much as 300 in Jubilee Hills, architects Mithul Sanghi and Disha Bhansali embraced an strategy that honoured the awe-inspiring pure panorama. “In our firm, we believe each project should be true to its intent,” Sanghi explains.

At Ru — an extract of the phrase ‘ruin’ — that intent grew to become an architectural homage to the website’s rugged boulders, evocative of how monuments age. Spanning 14,000 sq. ft., Ru attracts inspiration from the Japanese philosophy of Wabi Sabi, which finds magnificence in imperfections. Designed throughout 5 ranges, the construction wraps round the present rock formations, with the decrease three ranges discreetly housing service areas. At the pinnacle — 50 toes above floor — company expertise panoramic views of the adjoining authorities park from each indoor and semi-outdoor seating areas.

Material decisions reinforce the narrative of pure ageing: sustainable fly-ash bricks and lime plaster lend the façade a distressed, earthy character, additional accentuated by wood-slat home windows and the lattice-style wood door. The interaction of gentle and shadow is central to the spatial expertise, with interiors by Essajees Atelier complementing the architectural language via customized bamboo lighting that casts a heat, natural glow.

Departing from the earlier low-light environs of bars, the designers envisioned an inviting, light-filled atmosphere with the bar on the fourth flooring evoking a woodsy Zen aesthetic. While the consumer initially sought a Goa seaside shack vibe, the idea advanced right into a refined, minimalist Indo-Japanese mix that seamlessly connects inside and out of doors, embracing the rockface and plush landscaping, a testomony to the historic and the future.

The open bar is highlighted by a dome-shaped ceiling.
| Photo Credit:
Avesh Gaur

One8 Commune, Noida

Architect: Sanjana Singh

With the shout-out “Noida is officially Kohlified!” on Instagram, one8 Commune Noida formally opened its doorways in November 2024. Part of the rising chain of resto-bars by Virat Kohli, it’s named after his jersey quantity and constructed round the ethos of ‘artful living, soulful dining’. This outpost designed by Saaz Designs Studio continues the model’s narrative of neighborhood and inclusivity — welcoming households, {couples}, and company diners alike for shared experiences of leisurely high quality eating.

Spread throughout 5,817 sq.ft. with seating for 165, the venue attracts on the relaxed sophistication of Mexican Tulum lounges and international cafés. The bohemian stylish aesthetic comes alive in an eclectic but elegant mix of wooden, rattan, and linen in heat, earthy tones. Layered lighting — from sculptural pendants to intimate spotlights — enhances the atmosphere throughout the venue’s zoned structure: a central eating space, vibrant bar and lounge, alfresco patio, and personal eating room.

Speaking on the broader evolution of resto-bars, Sanjana Singh, founder and principal architect at Saaz, notes: “Open bar concepts, curated bottle displays, and immersive mixology stations are now focal points celebrating the craft. Evolving norms around drinking have enabled architects to design spaces that foster openness, interaction, and elevated leisure without stigma.”

This shift informs Singh’s inventive strategy to lighting and spatial design — emphasizing transparency, mood-setting, and visible storytelling. The bar isn’t tucked away; it’s lit to ask curiosity. Pendant lamps turn out to be artwork. A mosaic on the flooring spells out ‘Communing’, echoing Kohli’s imaginative and prescient for food and drinks as immersive, thematic experiences — the place atmosphere is as a lot a component of the menu as the delicacies or cocktails.

Paradox, Mumbai

Designer: Ashiesh Shah

Commissioned by restaurateur Aditya Dugar, Bar Paradox in Mumbai’s Shakti Mills unfolds as a multi-layered narrative throughout a compact 2,500 sq. ft. vertically-defined area throughout two ranges. In a metropolis beloved for cinema, designer Ashiesh Shah has visualised an area of drama, proper from the slim entrance door that surprises you with a double-height quantity ‘like stepping into an old elevator’.

Dugar’s transient to create an immersive expertise, greater than only a bar, which spoke with nostalgia to mirror each reminiscence and modernity sparked it off. Shah elaborates, “He wanted a space that felt intimate yet cinematic, luxurious but not loud — a place that celebrated craft, storytelling, and personal history. It wasn’t just about designing a bar, it was about creating a narrative that people could walk into.” Paradox performs with contrasts — outdated and new, nostalgic and up to date, intimate and dramatic. Spatial remedies for zones — the vitrines, the mezzanine, the formal eating room and the fumoir (salon) — unfold as distinct narratives. Shah navigates the challenges of low ceilings, awkward beams and low gentle, turning them into alternatives. “You’re constantly discovering whether it’s a Chamba Rumal (a form of embroidery), a Dhokra fish in the bathroom, or a bar that feels like a tent on a midnight safari.”

Collaborating intently with Peter d’Ascoli, a typical love for textiles and storytelling got here to fruition in the Fumoir, as Shah describes, “something that felt both royal and secretive”. The bar on the higher degree has a counter of black marble with brass inlay and the entrance face completed in walnut burl. A levitating Dhokra egg sculpture suspended in the double-height quantity acts as a religious and visible anchor, capturing the soul of the area.