Whisky On The Wild Side

A leopard glares at me. As I inch away, I come face to face with a regal looking tigress. Thankfully, I am not trapped in a jungle, instead I am at The Lodhi’s cosy Safari Lounge. In keeping with the theme, the bar has loud leopard print armchairs, bar stools with tiger print, and cushions embroidered with all things from the animal kingdom including cheetahs and flamingos. The walls around me are busy with life-sized images of lions, snow leopards, and a tiger with prey.

New And Wild

What stands out is the new cocktail menu, titled Wild Spirits. It draws inspiration from eight wildlife sanctuaries, starting with Hemis National Park that sits high in the mountains of Ladakh, followed by Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand, Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, the Sunderbans in Bengal, Odisha’s Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary known for its Olive Ridley turtles, Kerala’s Periyar National Park from down South moving to Gir National Park, in Gujarat in the West, and finally Tal Chhapar Sanctuary in Rajasthan. These are interpreted as eight vibrant cocktails with flavour profile spanning the spectrum. This is where the bartenders, led by bar manager Yogesh Kumar, unleash their creativity while guests embrace their wild side.

Native Ingredients

“Once the destinations were selected, every cocktail was developed by studying the landscape, local produce, native botanicals, and culinary traditions associated with that ecosystem. We didn’t create cocktails around the animals; we created them around the places the animals call home. The wildlife is the inspiration, but the landscape is the storyteller,” says Sheena Tandon, director of sales and marketing. For example, the drink titled Periyar Bloom is rich with flavours of coconut and banana leather and has a base of whisky and rum; the resplendent pink One-Horned Legend has tea from Assam with gin, while The Corbett is garnished with nettle leaf dust, a plant that grows abundantly in the high altitudes of Uttarakhand.

“Guests will discover ingredients such as mahua flowers, gondhoraj lime, sea lettuce, tamarind flower, smoked tea, bamboo shoot, coconut vinegar, water chestnut, regional honey, indigenous spices, and native herbs, among others. Many of these ingredients have long been part of local food traditions but are rarely seen in luxury cocktail menus,” says Abhimanyu Singh Lodha, general manager, The Lodhi. 

It took six months for the team to put together this menu. They take great pride in the fact that the whole process right from ideating to creating has been done in-house. The food menu pairs dishes with the cocktails. Our picks include the fiery pulled laal maas lamb baos which complement Desert Leap that's smoky and sweet with hazelnut foam, biscotti, cinnamon dust and a pour of whisky, Kasundhi tawa sole, a fish from the rivers of Bengal partners with the tequila-rich Sunderbans Tide, and the spice hit from the Call of the Gir is offset by flaky lilva kachoris... 

The team hopes guests leave with more than a favourite cocktail. “While Wild Spirits is primarily a culinary and cocktail programme, it is also intended to encourage curiosity about India’s extraordinary natural heritage. If guests leave wanting to visit one of these parks or learn more about India’s biodiversity, we’ve achieved something beyond serving a great drink,” signs off Lodha. 

RR Verdict

At a time when concept bars are on the rise, especially within the cocktail map of Delhi — think bars serving drinks based on novels and menus that are Gen Z-coded — Safari Lounge's Wild Spirits comes in as a welcome addition for a cheery hour. With a concept that's unique and drinks with interesting regional ingredients, the bar attempts to take revellers on a walk on the wild side.

The Lodhi is located at Lodhi Road, CGO Complex, Pragati Vihar, New Delhi. The average cost for two here is Rs. 7,950 + taxes.