By Varun Mannava (Pub Reviewer & the Author of the *Bestseller book “Polite Pickup Lines in Indian Pubs” buy now on Amazon — http://www.amazon.in/Polite-Pickup-lines-Indian-Pubs/dp/9386073137 )
I see a menu card has a picture of an animated pigeon and the tagline said “Fat bird found with tons of booze”. And it did have a lot of scope to give away those tons of booze too. 3 bars within 2 floors and hundreds of ‘Awesome people who deserve Awesome booze’.
Getting entry is a big challenge, that too on a Saturday night. There will be at least 50 people standing near the entry gate. Half of them waiting for their friends to join and the remaining half are undecided because they just got to know from the concierge that there are no tables available. 20 mins pass by and its almost 11 pm. The gate is partially closed. Reason ? “Sir, the club is jam packed. Sorry you may not even get place to stand.”
We still took our chances and reached the 4th floor.
The walkway from the lift to the main pub has a lot of ‘selfie clicking’ accessories. One of them interestingly looked like a standalone car door.
Before we enter the main pub on the 4th floor, to the left of the walkway, there is a mini hangout area with a bar and a few tables. Its for people who want to occasionally chat because they cant hear themselves inside the pub where dj is playing. Or for those who want to look at the mad crowd from a distance.
Turn right from the walkway and you enter the main pub where the dj is playing. The dj console is located on far end one floor above the bar. Its an exclusive DJ console with no crowd to disturb him, yet he can look at the crowd like a bird’s eye view.
The bartenders in the main bar are dressed up in causal t-shirt and jeans along with a black & white checked shirt. They look like friendly college going students. They are quite quick and helpful too. There is a huge bar in the middle of this main pub and these bartenders are inside the bar, of course. Outside the bar however are the awesome jam packed Hyderabad pub goers. We could also see some single women partying on their own, which is a rarity in this town.
From the main bar there is a door which leads to a cozy balcony area in the same floor and we see a few couples relishing their private time.
Come out of the main pub, turn left and you go back to the elevators and can go home. But wait there is something else on the right side. Climb a few steps and you would see a mini open air auditorium. There are a few tables here but people can also sit on the steps in this mini auditorium. Wait, are we still in a pub? Yes of course. They were screening Kung Fu Panda using a screen and a projector.
Now comes the biggest surprise of all. Far from the loud and madding crowd, the terrace has “live music” and a relaxing ambience. Unless you get caught in the rain, it’s quite serene under the open sky, having a good time with your loved ones and friends. This section has waiters and service. The terrace also has two big tables in the middle and the seating for these two tables alone is a bit different to the rest of the seats on terrace. Those two tables have a few cool huge-ass swings as seats! Ha.
We made new friends, spoke to absolute strangers and got to know their passions, future plans, work challenges and yet gulped a few bottles of beer, took groupies, exchanged numbers, bid goodbyes, transferred booze into plastic takeaway glasses and finally hit the road (booked cabs of course, remember no drink and drive!).
Even while coming down in the elevator, I met a “Spine Surgeon” and his wife who were looking curiously towards my t-shirt which has a bar like design and reads “Polite Pickup Lines in Indian Pubs”. I told them its the name of my book and that its about conversation starters. They said it sounds very interesting and that they will buy it ! That made my day!
To be honest, I have never seen such vibrant crowd in Hyderabad at least till now. My take is that these awesome people had always existed in Hyderabad but Fat Pigeon has achieved the “Himalayan” task of gathering all these (awesome people) under one roof!
Happy Pubbing Hyderabad !
Varun's Word 