Watering hole for golfers

The Golf Bar has been created for those who love the greens

Vidya Deshpande

WITH bars becoming more popular in sada Dilli, every hotel is looking for a popular place to keep its guests happy and its F&B bills soaring. New bars have opened in almost all the hotels, starting with Rick’s at Taj Mahal, 1911 at The Imperial, then the Golf Bar at the Maurya Sheraton followed by The Whiskey Bar at the Grand Hyatt.

The Golf Bar at the Maurya Sheraton has replaced its decade old bar, the Jazz Bar. The Golf Bar was inaugurated in a hurry last month, without the usual trappings of a page three party, when the ITC chairman Y C Deveshwar was in town.

Maurya Sheraton it seems decided to have a quiet theme like golf to move away from the trend of having hip-hop noisy bars. The Golf Bar is meant to be a quiet hideout for the tired CEO to let his hair down after a tough boardroom meeting. The wooden panels on the floor and the heavy leather furniture measure up to that look and feel. Of course, the walls are filled with golfing memorabilia from antiques to equipment and paintings. The bar, which was earlier located centrally has been moved to a corner, giving the bar a more spacious look.

The bar list concentrates on hard liquor, with a small listing of cocktails and mocktails. But even the spirits list is limited in choice, except for the whiskeys, which come in a long selection, including a special listing of Scotches, keeping with the ‘gentlemen’ theme. There is also a small snacks menu, named after famous golf courses of the world. Each snack has been matched with a golf course in a particular place, offering an international platter to choose from. The St Andrew’s Choice (named after this world famous course, known to be the birthplace of golf) has Norwegian smoked salmon tartlets, salmon caviar on toast accompanied with a creamy cheese and chive dip (Rs 350 for a large helping and Rs 250 for a small one).

The Valderramas Collection, named after Spain’s most popular fairway, has a platter of pita bread with a variety of filling like calamari rings, chicken, chicken sausages, etc, served as a tapas selection (Rs 350, large and Rs 250 small).

The hotel is trying to cash in on the need for a quiet place for the middle-agers, who don’t like brushing shoulders with the 20-plus noisy yuppies. It does succeed is creating that ambience, but the appetisers’ selection could be larger, and the women may appreciate some more cocktails. But, the bartender tells me that they plan to keep the menu and bar list more active with additions and deletions every month. So, next time you go, it may be a different menu and even a different look with the accessories being swapped for new ones.

An evening for three costs around Rs 3,500, for drinks and snacks.