IF YOUR FESTIVE CALENDAR runs from Diwali card parties to a New Year's Eve countdown at home, you know where the pressure lands. Food can be ordered in. The playlist can be outsourced to a nephew. The bar is harder, because it needs someone behind it all night, and that someone is usually you.
Painkiller, the Hauz Khas cocktail bar, is offering a way out. It is the first bar to partner with The Bartenders, a new initiative from food platform Slurrp that brings India's leading cocktail bars into private celebrations. Book them, and Painkiller's team takes over your home bar for the evening, with its drinks, its techniques and its sense of humour intact.
A BAR THAT WEARS ITS CRAFT LIGHTLY
Painkiller shares its first-floor space in Hauz Khas Market with Savage Sandwich Shop, switching from sandwich counter to 40-seat cocktail bar each evening. Its four partners, bartender Annu Jha, chefs Hanisha Singh and Jamsheed Bhote, and photographer-entrepreneur Ananth Kumar, wanted a bar for grown-ups: one where you can talk to the bartender without shouting over the music.
The menu reads like a medicine cabinet, with drinks named Dolo 651, Pearcetamol, IV Drip Twist and Bananadryl. The humour works because the drinks back it up. The IV Drip Twist layers melon, a bitter aperitif and coconut with pandan and kaffir lime. The house Negroni gets a dash of pickled tomato brine, which softens the bitterness with something savoury.
That ease is deliberate. Jha has said that many bars pile on so much craft and storytelling that guests end up overwhelmed, when all they want is to enjoy themselves. Painkiller would rather you simply enjoyed your drink, which also happens to be the best brief for a house party.
"There are so many occasions when guests simply can’t make it to Painkiller, So why not take Painkiller to them? They get the comfort of their own home, with a great Painkiller drink in the middle of it," says Jha.
WHAT HOSTS GET
- The team: 1 lead bartender and 1 bar back.
- A menu built for the party, planned with the host beforehand.
- The bar's own prep and ice. You get the booze and glasses; they will figure out the rest
- Set-up to clear-up.
The host supplies the spirits and the space. Ideally, the host gets the booze, glasses and serveware, but it all can be discussed as per the event.
WHY HOSTS ARE SIGNING UP
The appeal is simple. The host stops being the bartender and gets to be the host. Guests, meanwhile, get drinks from a bar they would otherwise have to book a table at. "All our signatures are very playful, starting with the names, and that makes them easy to do in someone’s home," says Jha. "This winter, I think people will love the spicy tequila drink that we recently added to our menu called Inflammin."
The festive season has never been short of parties. It has often been short of hosts who get to enjoy them. Painkiller is about to change that!
GOOD TO KNOW
• In Delhi, a private party serving alcohol generally needs a temporary P-10 licence from the excise department. Painkiller adheres to all the necessary rules and regulations. Hence, the hosts are required to keep the licence in check.
• The legal drinking age in Delhi is 25.
• Delhi's liquor shops shut on Diwali, which falls on Sunday, 8 November, so stock up a day or two early.
• Where: Anywhere is fine
• To book: Write to them barpainkiller.delhi@gmail.com.
This article is intended only for readers aged 25 and above. Please drink responsibly and exercise moderation. Never drink and drive.