The idea of Drunkling came up when the owner would herd his drunk friends home. The owners of the venue, all old Bengalureans, are trying to bring back pubs in their true form, which makes Drunkling in Koramangala the ideal place to get nostalgic in a modern setting. That is what a bunch of the city’s party folk, including Sudheer KS, Nandhu Naidu and BNS Reddy, did recently at the venue as they unwound and caught up over old-school food (where the focus is on quality of ingredients rather than price), drinks that are natural and low on sugar, in an ambience that remind one of an old tavern, all while grooving to retro classics and rock music spun by DJ Ganesh.
Take a good bottle of Old Monk, a few inebriated blokes tottering in the city, some good old retro music and the olden day MO: a pub that is a pub, and you’ve got yourself Drunkling, the new address for tipple in Koramangala. Their partners, Sudheer KS, Rajshekhar Reddy, Yogesh M, Dominic Savio and Nandhu Naidu are the quintessential old Bengalureans that ache for the uncomplicated pub city of yore that kind of lost its way in the quagmire of being trendy, current and loungey. So this is a happy warm pub, for wholesome down time with the buddies and ordinary pub grub. Dominic, the managing partner, was behind the bar potions that have trickled down many bengalurean throats was the tap man at Black Cadillac, with the now shut popular Tavern and so on. Case in point, the Pop My Cherry cocktail we had, subtle flavours, not high on sugar, perfect in its bitter meet honey taste, could have been a fuller glass though.
Sudheer KS, a former state Level boxer turned pub owner was tired of the many ideas littering Bangalore’s tipple streets, so he got designer Arun Balan to design a pub, and a pub is what you get. And a walk down memory lane with retro music, which we sure hope they stick with. Coz there aren’t many places that offer retro, you know the kind with melody, meaning and words! “We were searching for a name and Drunkling is the a person who takes care of his drunk buddies and it sort of fit. My father was in the hotel industry for a long time, and after he passed away, I always had a passion to start a regular pub, and Drunkling is a dream fulfilled. The sizzlers are good. The idea was to bring back old Bangalore back, in terms of a pub-ish feel with good retro music, ordinary pub food which is tasty,” says Sudheer, who wants to bring the glory days of the pub city into reckoning. It’s a bit of tavern, Pub World with a Soho kinda swank added to give it an elegant wholesomeness. With something for everyone: a quiet dinner, a drink or just a night out.
Strangely enough, Koramangala needed an unpretentious hub to drink, with good music and a good enough bite that offers you just a place to be, for a quiet dinner of sizzlers in the rough white wooden and grey sizzler diner on the ground floor, or to up the tempo in their pub and terrace upstairs that speaks of rich wood, brick walls, leather chairs and English pub interiors.
The sizzlers served only in the dining area down stairs are tasty and regular fare. The fact that it was perfectly plated with the corn, broccoli, veggies and onions in their place instead being a whole mish-mash was nice. They offer different their own concocted marinades and sauces, so order what you like. We heard the sandwiches, the pesto panini is yummy, and of course a good wholesome sponges bread only adds to the meal. The desserts are succinct in menu, a lava cake which was soft and delicious with Joy ice cream, (yay) something we Ooreans have grown up with, and was sourced for the place, and a crunched up bite of delicious brownie, all nuts on the outside and melt in the mount on the inside, do have it.
Drunkling is just that: that special hub that takes care of the tipple and the aftermath with amber warmth and retro music. Drunkling is just that: that special hub that takes care of the tipple and the aftermath with amber warmth and retro music.
