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WORKERS of Bengaluru’s Central Business District, we’ve found you yet another new after-hours bar to plot revolution.
Sit in breakout clusters, gather along the bold bar counter in the centre or corral all of the customers into your chorus to bring in the good times. The fifty-seater, deconstructed yet intimate Bar Sama in Ulsoor is the right size for the right moves.
Friendship lager than life
Buddies and mixologists Gabriel Lowe and Jesse Vida have poured drinks across the world, starting in San Francisco and then parting ways for a few years. Lowe went down to Bogotá and found himself in Bangkok, and Vida moved to New York but wound up in Singapore. But together in June 2023, they opened up Cat Bite Club in the Lion City; in a short time, they’ve come to sit pretty at number 44 on the list of Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2025.
Now, the dynamic duo have teamed up with Pratheek Reddy, former builder now restaurateur (think: Comal), to bring their brand of magic to the city. These California boys have earned their stripes in Singapore serving up smooth, killer agave-base cocktails, so two – this writer and a food revivalist – in our gang of three kickoff with Pulp Friction and Chilli On. And our third, a VP at an apparel brand, strikes out on her own with Freshware.
From the first sip, each of our drinks was distinct and delectable. The Pulp Friction is a sensational mix of sweetness and smoke from the agave alcohol, punched up with the fruity, citrusy flavours of grapefruit, pomelo, and pink peppercorns. The Chilli On isn’t one-note but flushed with the refreshing sweetness of the watermelon shrub, and the accompanying chilli tincture puts you in charge of spice threshold. And the gin-based Freshware is tropical and excellent with hints of citrus, kiwi and mint.
Nosh pit
Our section of the striking, sleek bar counter definitely tilted a few degrees with our order of Thai-inspired small plates. Here’s our list: asparagus and tofu, grilled eggplant, night market moo ping, scallop and cold noodle ‘sao-nam’, soft-shell crab and ‘hung-lay’ style pork belly.
While the cocktails at Bar Sama are layered, nuanced and grown-up, the food created by chef Vichita Kumar (previously at O Pedro, Lupa and Comal) is the perfect partner-in-crime. We say this, with some hesitation, but no dish missed the mark; it had the signature balance of Thai cuisine but also took things up a notch.
We’re just going to reel off the ingredients that sang soprano in this chorus of yumminess. The house-made silken tofu, the crispy skin of the grilled eggplant, the shock of bird’s eye chilli spreading through the juicy pork skewers, the trinity of scallop, pineapple tobiko and coconut ponzu in the sao-nam, we could’ve married the soft-shell crabs and immediately divorced them to spend time with the pork belly. Thankfully, relationships are interesting in our contemporary, and we can have it all.
Let me drink about it
Across us, we lined up another round of their wonderful concoctions: Century Cooler, Berry On, and the Velvet Eclipse. The first in the list: a gin-based brew waltzed with flavours of the food delightfully with its tomato water, makrut leaf and celery components. Our second, a tequila-based aerated with a gingery fizz and the sparkle of citrus, echoed the significance of this pungent, earthy rhizome in Thai cuisine. And our third flipped the script on the once trendy espresso martini with a cold coffee brew topped with a warm pineapple-coconut foam; striking and surprising.
My other two companions retired stuffed to the gills at this point. But this writer continued with a Sabba-tini, a classic martini spiked delicately with the refreshing bite of dill. But the fear of the next morning stirred up, and we did demolish an entire plate of Dirty Fried Rice – fragrant jasmine rice studded with morsels of yummy pork and ribbons of morning glory and bok choy – to soak up our excesses before booking our cab.
Go thirsty and hungry to Bar Sama; anyway, one will need this glorious fortification for the long revolution ahead.
Bar Sama is at the First Floor, TRN Horizon, Ulsoor Main Road, Bengaluru. Call 8904841477 for reservations (Monday-Sunday, 7.00 pm-1.00 am).
