The rise of Bengaluru cocktail culture

A new breed of niche, small-format cocktail bars are emerging in Bengaluru, transforming the city’s drinking landscape from Indian beer capital to cocktail hub. Nimmi Malhotra reports.

Bengaluru is home to more than 100 pubs and large-format brewbars.

But the city of 12 million people is catered to by just a handful of dedicated craft cocktail bars: nine to be precise.

Despite the low number, the city catapulted itself to cocktail fame when three of the relatively new bars – ZLB23, Bar Spirit Forward and Soka Bar – claimed positions on the coveted Asia’s 50 Best Bars list, a feat rivalled only once by the country’s capital city, Delhi, in 2022.

“The success has shocked the city”, says Avinash Kapoli of Soka Bar. “Everyone wants to open a cocktail bar now.”

The makings of a bar economy

This new wave is attributed to a well-heeled, adventurous clientele seeking international cocktail offerings; a talented pool of bar consultants eager to meet the latent demand, and innovative F&B entrepreneurs who broke the code to small business viability.

“The consumer is evolving,” says Kapoli. “They want to experience small spaces and intimate service.”

Priyanka Blah, founder and editor of lifestyle platform The Dram Attic, finds drinkers in her city are “adventurous but not easily swayed by gimmicks – they value flavour, technique and consistency over theatrics.” In her view, the local audience is seeking innovation and authenticity.

Arijit Bose, a seasoned bar consultant and co-founder of Bar Spirit Forward adds three more points in the city’s favour. “First, Bengaluru offers a receptive ecosystem and then, the city’s excellent weather and connectivity to major Asian ports only strengthen its position.”

The receptive clientele is matched by equally strong bar talent. Bose, for instance, brings a wealth of experience gained at Singapore’s stalwart 28 Hong Kong and Goa’s (now-shuttered) Tesouro. He holds significant sway in the international bar community and invites attention to the region.

Still, the journey hasn’t been easy. Spirits are heavily taxed in Karnataka. Until recently the state imposed a nighttime curfew of 11 pm. Moreover, securing a bar license to run a small bar in Bengaluru has always been prohibitively expensive.

“A bar license in Karnataka – which can cost as much as INR30 million (£252,000) – works like New York taxi licenses. They are expensive and finite in number,” explains Salman Sait, co-founder of Investorant Group, which owns Bar Spirit Forward and newly opened bar Dali and Gala. A big venue with 1000-covers was the only way to mitigate the investment costs.

That is, until Investorant found a workable solution. The group partnered with Southern Star Hotel to launch the 60-seater Bar Spirit Forward under the hotel’s licensed umbrella. The result is a sleek, buzzy, minimalist neighbourhood bar, powered by classic cocktails, cool vibes and excellent service.

Soka Bar adopted a similar approach. The 38-cover bar serves 15 cocktails made with native ingredients like jasmine and offers 15 curated bites, all of which resonated quickly with Bengaluru’s crowd. Staffed entirely by bartenders across four evening shifts, the cozy 530-square-metre space, illuminated by a standout cocoon light feature, has become a hit.

The small-set up business model allows the new bars to meet the needs of a value-conscious local consumer. Drinks at Soka and Bar Spirit Forward are priced around INR850 (£7) before taxes and aim to keep their drinks sub INR1000 (£8.50) to keep themselves relevant with the city’s itinerant value-conscious crowd.

Cocktail sales in a beer and spirit centric city are booming now. Kapoli says 99% of Soka’s sales come from cocktails, which is a significant achievement.

Meanwhile, ZLB23 operates from a different vantage. Housed in The Leela Palace, this Kyoto-inspired speakeasy bar features a hidden entrance via a working kitchen complete with chefs and runners, 1920s aesthetics, velvet furnishings, chandeliers and graphic samurai and geisha wallpaper.

Cocktails here start at INR1400 before tax (£12) and appeal to a more upmarket crowd. Since launching in February 2023, the bar has also successfully shifted preferences from spirits and beer to craft cocktails — representing 63% of total beverage sales, up from just 20%, according to operations manager Suchismita Roy Chowdhury.

Widely regarded as India’s best hotel bar, ZLB23 put Bengaluru on the global cocktail map as the only Indian bar listed on Asia’s Top 50 Best Bars list 2024 and continued its success by rising a few points in the 2025 list.

As Naval Kukreti, F&B director at the Leela, puts it: “The goal is not just to stay on the list — but to grow as a cultural and cocktail destination for both India and the world.”

Leela’s management team is committed to the cause and has hosted 55 guest shifts in two years and invited bar talent from around the world including Coa, Paradiso, Argo, Himkok, Cosmo Pony.

Every guest – from media to bar talent – is taken around the city to experience different venues like Soka and emerging new culture. The camaraderie flows both ways fostering a real sense of community.

Industry insiders now predict a surge in intimate, small venue formats. Bose estimates half a dozen more venues in the coming years, whereas Kapoli has already noticed a handful open in his part of town.

Blah believes that over the next few years, Bengaluru can expect a steady rise in these numbers. “There is a sense of adventure in the current F&B marketplace, which is thankfully still somewhat insulated from global trends. Let’s hope we can keep it that way.”

Related news

East Coast Canning partners with Meadow

Sunrise invests £100,000 into Curious Brewery

Sierra Nevada's Celly Drippins pours in the UK for the first time