Bustling bar culture has become new hallmark of any metro city.
Socialising is an inescapable phenomenon and everybody wants to meet over a couple of drinks which has lead the restaurants and bars to rise and grow . If we go back to our history, the discovery of late stone age Jugs suggest that fermented beverages existed at least as early as the Neolithic period ( 10.000BC). The earliest evidence of alcohol in what is now China are Jars from Jiahu which date to about 7000BC . The early rice mead was produced by fermenting rice , honey and fruit . Beer was the major beverage among the Babyllion and as early as 2700BC. They worshipped a wine goddess and other wine deities. Egypt brewing began in the city of Heiraconpolis around 3400BC. Alcoholic beverages in the Indus valley civilization appeared in the Chalcolithic era. These beverages were in use between 3000BC -2000BC . Sura a beverage brewed with rice , wheat , sugarcane , grapes and other fruits was popular among kshatriya warriors.
You must be wondering what am I up to with the history of alcohol consumption. Actually, I will blame it the newly opened bar "Philtre". I avoided their launch party as I thought it would be like any other bar/pub. Few weeks back I saw couple of their cocktails with very interesting presentation at my friend's social media post and I decided to go anonymously to try those drinks . Finally five of us booked a table at their terrace and planned to order five different drinks to try out their flavours. Their drink menu is huge but we preferred to try their five signature cocktails from which Botany of desire, Quin were repeated among us. 9th Ladder was interesting which actually led me to read the history of alcohol. Each of their cocktail has a story or theme of ancient era . There was no smoke , no molecular gastronmy either in both their drinks and food menu. I was informed by the server that even the bitters used in cocktails are inhouse.
Lets talk about Food -
In food , loved their curry leaves flavoured lamb chops and crab masala is to die for. I must say that my third hobby is listening to good music and this place impressed me with their good numbers and I could not stop myself to avoid the dance floor. Slowly as the evening turned into night , music went loud and so our laughter , suddenly a young boy came to our table enquiring whether everything is okay at our table . Sometimes simplicity of a person wins your heart and within no time we were friends and he too joined us .
I was amazed to know that this simple man , Neeraj Sharma , owner of Philtre has a strong hospitality background of working in Oberoi group, Lite bite foods and MRG hospitality. While chatting Neeraj told me " Since the day I entered the industry , I always dreamed of opening my own restaurant with perfection" . Although it was my first meeting but I couldnt stop myself and asked him with little hesitance, how he takes his Bar/Restaurant in this world of modern techniques of making cocktails and cooking with molecular gastronomy. To this Neeraj said " We want to bring back our ancient culture of drinks where metal mugs /Jugs were being used and even want to give fusion in our food without disturbing the originality of the dish" . Now if I recall , we were served most of their cocktails in brass lotas , square box and ceramic bowl .
With a glace of house full ambiance I found most of the crowd was young , which was giving a clear hint of acceptance of the theme and motive of Philtre in modern society. I hope they introduce more such cocktails with interesting stories and give me a reason to drive down to sector 29 , Gurgaon.
