Vault Biennale’s Bar Takeover, a very high-end luxury beverage event taking place at Kamala Mills, Lower Parel Mumbai.
What is the bar takeover?
Three of the World’s 50 Best Bars take over three legendary bars at Kamala Mills Mumbai, offering a one-of-a-kind experience in world-class mixology. Curated for one night on February 16th (Saturday), Koko, The Bombay Canteen and Xico will join The Vault Biennale as they play host to Bar Benfiddich from Tokyo, The Clumsies from Athens and Licoreria Limantour from Mexico City respectively.
This will be the chosen bars’ debut India tour as part of Keshav Prakash’s brainchild aka India’s debut luxury beverage festival.
Bar Name: Bar Benfiddich
Country: Tokyo, Japan
Mixologist: Hiroyasu Kayama
Ranking: 49th of the World Top 50 Best Bars
USP: Cocktails of the ‘farm-to-bar’ concept
Hiroyasu Kayama approach to cocktails at Benfiddich has been dubbed “farm-to-bar”. He opened Bar Benfiddich in 2013 and it gave him an opportunity to pursue a longstanding interest in traditional elixirs and herbal liquors, often using ingredients – anise, fennel, wormwood – grown on his family’s plot in Chichibu, Saitama, which he then uses to break apart and rebuild classic liquors like Campari, Amaro and gin. The design concept for his charming bar is a moonshine den, dark and mysterious, with 19th-century bottles and jars of arcane herbal infusions. Whisky, absinthe, gin, and Amaro are the foundation of the cocktails created at Benfiddich. Bar Benfiddich is one of the World’s 50 best bars and Kamaya San has also won first prize at “The Botanist Foraged Cocktail Contest” in 2015, and has been heralded worldwide at a cocktail maker and the closest thing to a modern day alchemist.
Bar Name: The Clumsies
Country: Athens, Greece
Mixologist: Alex Simonidis & Georgia Georgakopoulou
Ranking: 7th of the World Top 50 Best Bars
USP: Debuted at number 22 in 2015’s The World’s 50 Best Bars, the bar has since featured three times in the top 10
If a bar’s aim is to be a church to socializing and imbibing, The Clumsies’ holy mission is very much complete. With three floors that draw in the crowds all day, The Clumsies has it all – from coffee to homely-but-refined Greek food to leading-edge cocktails. It is the brainchild of two bartenders – Nikos Bakoulis (Greek World Class Winner 2011) and Vasilis Kyritsis (Greek World Class Winner 2012) – who, in the midst of the Greek recession, took over a dilapidated building in the centre of town. Backed by three local businessmen, the site was transformed and The Clumsies now has a global standing. After debuting at number 22 in 2015’s The World’s 50 Best Bars, the bar has since featured three times in the top 10. The Clumsies is an Athens bar, filled with loyal locals, but this team is always looking for ways to improve and has just opened a fermentation room in its basement.
Bar Name: Licoreria Limantour
Country: Mexico City, Mexico
Mixologist: Jose Luis Leon
Ranking: 11th of the World Top 50 Best Bars
USP: Travelled to all 50 best bars to better understand what makes a world’s best bar
Limantour rises to the challenge, making the list for the third year in a row and taking the title of Latin America’s Best Bar. It still brings its laid back Latin vibe to a stellar collection of craft cocktails. And it’s still incorporating international elements into drinks served with a smile in this lively, two-story, Art Deco-inspired space.
Manager, industry star and award-winning bartender Jose Luis Leon set a goal last year of visiting all the bars on the top 50 list to better understand what makes a world’s best bar. So far he’s hit 30 and counting. At Limantour for more than five years Leon has maintained both a consistency and familiarity appreciated by longtime, loyal regulars. But, he also keeps things fresh by bringing in younger, newer talent such as Mafer Tejada who recently represented Mexico at World Class and was deemed ‘inspirational’ by judge Spike Marchant. Tejada observes that longstanding local tastes for beer and mezcal are slowly shifting towards more sophisticated cocktail options, in large part thanks to forerunners on the food and drinks scene like Limantour. However, members of this talented team haven’t simply forgotten historica l drinking habits for flashier trends. They keep a foot firmly rooted in both old-school and up-to-date territory, incorporating homegrown ingredients that serve as an accessible bridge between the two drinking tendencies.
Tickets to the event is available on bookmyshow.com and insider.in.
