It is true that a good cocktail menu can elevate a bar and be a great way to showcase what the team has to offer. It is also true that sometimes, it is best to trust your bartender and know that they won’t disappoint.
It is in this spirit that India’s unsung hero, Gurgaon’s Cocktails & Dreams Speakeasy (fondly known as Speaks) has decided to “Drop The Menu” – a clear statement by bar virtuosos Yangdup Lama and Minakshi Singh, encouraging an exercise in trust on both of sides of the bar and leaning on their bar team for their experience with ingredients and guest interaction. Lama and Singh believe in empowering their bar teams and trusting them enough to know what the guest would like, thereby allowing the team complete artistic licence. They are also of the belief that this encourages more dialogue and interaction on either side of the bar – an element of bar culture that is so intrinsic to it, yet so easy to overlook.
Quite often, bars can get extremely caught up in the creative process of menu design and while that itself is a labour of love and exercise in patience, there is something romantic about this decision to drop the menu. Human interactions across the bar have been known to catalyse great ideas and one can hardly undermine the joy of good banter after a long day, over a drink made specially for you.
Established in 2012, by Yangdup Lama and Minakshi Singh, this bar is a first of its kind in Gurgaon, with a complete experience of the 1920’s Prohibition Era in America. Cocktails & Dreams is a bar where one can revisit the golden age of cocktails from top of the line Classics to the New Age Straights, surrounded by the tales of Bootleggers, Rum Runners and MoonShiners, in a warm atmosphere; where good service and customised cocktails are the piece de resistance. This is a true bartender’s bar, where great drinks are matched with excellent bar banter and conversations and every person feels right at home.
If you find yourself in Gurgaon, grab a seat at the bar, enjoy some jazz and blues, and talk to the bartender – you will not be disappointed.
Follow Cocktails & Dreams on Instagram.
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