Nikhil Agarwal, Founder, All Things Nice
01-Apr-2026
From Instagram-worthy pictures to innovative ingredients, has Gen Z reshaped the way we see & sip our cocktails?
Never have I seen a trend catch on so quickly when it comes to beverages in India.
Bartenders are the new superstars of the drink world – bar chefs, if you may call them or even mad scientists. They give us their creativity distilled into a glass using chemistry lab-like equipment and techniques that you would not believe.
A new cocktail bar aspiring to be on any or all of the many “Numerical Best” lists is akin to the many wide-eyed people coming to Bombay to be in a Bollywood movie. There is real passion and real effort here.
I spend a lot of my time at bars and restaurants. I talk with the talented people behind the bar. The one common element I see is that the Indian bartender is no longer shy of using Indian ingredients or Indian flavours to create their cocktails. Some serve the classics; most want to reinvent the wheel. Ekaa, in Mumbai, even has a cocktail programme based on Ancient ayurveda.
There is depth in the bar programmes; the cocktail menu isn’t just a cocktail menu anymore. It’s a story written by the bar team, a journey they want to take you on. What’s changed? We as people want better and different things, and we take our drink seriously. People research beforehand which cocktail bars they want to go to when visiting a new city, not just international or business travellers but local tourists and local business travellers as well.
The very best bars from around the world come weekly to India for collaborations with local bars. Local bars head out globally too. At a recent takeover we did with Paradiso, one of the best bars in the world from Barcelona, I was surprised to talk to so many of our guests who had already been there.
I love how ZLB23 at the Leela Palace in Bangalore offers a 360-degree experience. Cocktails made with top-end spirits, live music and a food menu to die for. AER at Four Seasons is also fantastic and the Library Bar in Delhi is perhaps one of my personal favourites.
(Lair, New Delhi)
But it’s not just hotel bars. AABBCC in Delhi by the folks behind Lair has knocked it out of the park. They weren’t just satisfied with Lair, which is already one of the best. Sidecar and Home in Delhi; Japonico in Gurgaon; Bombay Canteen, Americano, Paradox, and Otra in Mumbai; Boiler Maker & Hideaway in Goa; and Bar Spirit Forward and Soka in Bangalore are all doing amazing things. Kolkatta has AMPM, Conversation Room and more. This is by far not an exhaustive list so pardon me if I have missed your favourite but it’s just to give us a glimpse. Standalone bars doing top-class cocktails are not limited to Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore; this is a major pan-India surge that will go deeper and wider in time to come.
What amazes me now is the level of hospitality and the sharpness and confidence in the service. Almost like a Michelin restaurant in some cases, with sheer warmth and friendliness added on in some. The new bar teams are not here to take your order; they are here to have fun along with you. Just like how Chefs who used to work at hotels or bigger restaurant groups started creating their own restaurants with their own vision enabling them to create better experiences, so have bartenders and, in some cases, even brand ambassadors of spirit companies.
I am genuinely excited to see the bar fraternity bloom and have deep respect for the way they support and push one another as colleagues rather than competitors to do more. Often people from humble backgrounds find their calling and express their creativity here. This fraternity deserves the recognition they get and make no mistake, they are the ones getting India to drink better.
Cover Credits: Unsplash
