Chinmay Manoj By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Ask anyone in Bengaluru where the party is tonight and they’d most likely say Koramangala, Indiranagar or MG road. These areas are known for their beer, late night lights and their noise. And now, slowly but surely joining their league is JP Nagar – the new hub for watering holes in the city.

Uru Park, the city’s first beer park, is now open in this area. Fat Owl is another bar that will come up in JP Nagar in two weeks or so. Girish S V, director of Levitate Brewery and Kitchen, and a south Bengalurean, says the lack of options in that part of town forced people to travel to Indiranagar or Koramangala. This then prompted the team to open a micro brewery in JP Nagar and thus Levitate Brewery and Kitchen was born just over six months ago.

With many offices and new apartment complexes coming up in nearby areas, JP Nagar acts as a melting pot for all sorts of crowds. This boom in pubs and breweries in the area has also come to the notice of outlets that have already been operational in other places in the city. House of Commons, for example, is present in Koramangala and in HSR Layout, and will now be opening in JP Nagar around the first week of August. “There is enough crowd and market to absorb all the new openings that are coming up here. The pricing of House of Commons is set in a way that people will not have a problem visiting it multiple times a week,” explains Dilip Nair, general manager of the House of Commons group.

Agrees Santosh Sriram, owner of Hakuna Matata, and Brahma Brews, one of the biggest brewery in JP Nagar, who feels the city’s traffic situation has also played a role in the making of this new F&B hub, which earlier had a handful of places like Brewsky, Stories, 55 Wall Street and Churchill’s. “The catchment area is humongous here and this area has become the centre of attention for restaurants as people do not want to travel a lot.”

Whether the growing number of eateries, bars and restaurants will be a cause of concern for residents, like it is for Indiranagar residents, is yet to be seen. For now, residents are happy about the proximity these places provide. “For someone who lives on Kanakapura Road, travelling all the way to MG Road and Indiranagar or the so-called ‘pub-hubs’ of Bengaluru was fun, but at the same time, it was tiring and time-consuming. It’s easier for me and my friends to just meet at one of these places instead,” opined Shivani Shailesh, a resident of Konanakunte.

Brewing up

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