The Beer Café Now At Kamala Mills

Gone are the days when people bought a particular brand of beer and enjoyed with their friends at business meetings or at private parties, sometimes they would have in their car or in front of a liquor store. 

The whole idea has changed, and the taste buds too. It is no more a dingy bar or a closed room but now its a vibrant café. The idea is to have infused beer paired with selected finger food. To compliment the brand’s choicest beers is the carefully curated food menu with pairing across brews and food group. People are learning the taste of hard drinks from very early age and why not? If its is different from normal beer and has an exotic taste.

Everyday there are new beer joints cropping up around the city. ‘The Beer Café’ has launched its 10^th outlet in Mumbai at Kamala Mills, Mumbai prime commercial hub.

This outlet has been given vintage feel that brings forward the essence of an era that was once characteristic to the city. The café boasts of patterns and textures that are splashed with yellows and rust.

The tables are fairly separated from each other with long tables across the room for bigger groups and some dotted into cozy islands allowing privacy for smaller groups. Two LCDs on the wall completes the interiors for cricket loving fans. The vibrant music is in higher decibels leaving little space for conversations.

Offering as many as 24 beers on tap and over 50 brands from 19 countries, the largest collection of beer brands under one roof, the café is a true heaven for beer lovers.

I am not much of a beer lover, I had ordered Pepsi for self, but still I did take a sip or two from small beer glasses on the table and was quite fascinated by its taste.

Specially the black, creamy, velvety-smooth  ‘Shepherd’s Double Stout Draught’ that had burnt flavors of roasted cocoa and coffee notes. The other that I tasted was sweet and sour beer with little bitterness called “Hoegaarden Draught”. This had a strong touch of coriander with a hint of orange. I was tipsy after two sips, but looking around I found that people seemed to enjoy all the flavors.

The food was excellent. I loved the garden fresh pizza, chicken bruschetta, stadium style nachos and the flaky chicken chips. There was even veg and non-veg briyani on the menu.

The Beer café is doing for popular beverage what Starbuck is doing for coffee and soon we will have many more such Beer café all across India.

“There was no alco-beverage chain in India. Every now and then, a new fad comes in form of discotheques, nightclubs and lounge bars. But cafes remain consistent with their offerings. Socializing is now an inescapable phenomenon and these cafes serve as a perfect neighborhood meeting place for urban consumers. We saw a white space there and filled it with merging the two: beer and café. Thus, began The Beer Cafe’sjourney in April 2012, with the launch of our first outlet in Gurgaon.” Says RahulSingh, the CEO of The beer Café

And the game has just begun. 

Pre-Valentine Celebration at Le Mangii at Parel

The invitation was to spend a pre-valentine evening at ‘Le Mangii’. An evening of entertainment and fine dining was promised. 

Who could refuse? I am glad I went. 

Tucked away in the ‘C’ block of Kamala Mills compound at Parel, the restaurant has an imposing front. It is the fourth of its’ kind, having already made its presence in the neighborhood of Bandra, Juhu and Andheri.

I was guided to the upper level into a large dinning room with impressive ambience. There is high ceiling with variable lighting fixtures at different sections of the restaurant. A big open island bar cuts through the center of the room dividing the room with cozy seating arrangement on the left and wooden formal setting on the right. There are high-table-chair arrangements for more casual diners. Far back of the room is the open fireplace where one can see the signature handcrafted Napolitana wood-fired oven pizzas being churned out every minute.

Exotic paper-thin crusted pizzas are amazing.

The starters arrived as soon as I was seated. In the most innovative presentation, the finger foods were presented that included the delicious plateful of assorted bruschetta’s, spoonful of baked mushrooms soaked in sauces, basket of deep fried squids, cupful of grilled chicken and many more.  

The meat was succulent and perfectly cooked; the sauces that complimented the snacks were delicious although I had to add tobacco and red chili flakes to suit my taste. I would strongly advise that in-house  prepared chili sauce be included, because Indian palate is used to spicy cuisine and many of my friends found the food bland.

I need to make a special mention to this deep fried chicken on sticks that had me asking for more.

There was a loud music in the room that made conversation impossible. In my opinion, loud music is acceptable if there is a dance floor, but if one has to enjoy a meal, soft music in the background will be more suitable.

Le Mangii draws its inspiration from the popular Italian diner, “Café Mangii.” I had a glance at menu card and it boasted of reasonably priced selection of exotic pastas and risottos, aromatic soups, delectable grills and sinful desserts.

For main course, I ordered Chicken Roulade with salad and rice. I drooled the minute it appeared and the taste did the justice to its presentation. The grilled chicken was tender and perfectly cooked.  

A business meeting during daytime, or an entertaining night out, if you like Italian cuisine, ‘Le Mangii’ is the place to be.

Phone : 02266375050