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Want to chill out?
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Here are three new options — Distil and Hip Asia at the Taj Connemara, and Provogue Lounge at the Park Sheraton
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Elegant ambience: Distil at Connemara
Things will never be the same at the Taj Connemara.
Once content to be sleepily elegant, the hotel has suddenly woken up to find itself transformed into a hip new destination for the city's most hot and happening party people. Or at least, that's the plan.
The hotel opened Distil, their new `high energy contemporary bar' along with Hip Asia, a cutting edge pan Asian restaurant, in a glitzy, champagne soaked evening on Friday. The show, which included a performance by the Shaolin Monks followed by a party at Distil featuring DJs Nikhil Chinappa and Pearl, had Chennai-ites descending on the hotel in droves: tossing their just-blow-dried hair in the lobby and charging into Distil with all the enthusiasm of rhinos heading towards the jungle's most popular watering hole.
But then, apparently, that was only to be expected: it was simply a case of history repeating itself.
After all the Connemara was `hip' for decades. "This was the place Lady Connemara holed up in when she fought with her husband," said Jyoti Narang, Chief Operating Officer of the Taj, at the launch. "And she drank at the bar."
Today, Lady Connemara's quiet refuge has been made into a see-and-be-seen type of place, aimed at young Mr. and Ms. Moneybags, the new wave of professionals, who earn the green stuff in wads and spend a substantial part of it living the good life.
And the hotel's chief draws are expected to be Distil and Hip Asia.
Distil, which has both a stand-up bar and a quieter lounge area, features Nick, a bartender from the United Kingdom who reportedly specialises in "tall drinks... muddles, breezes and mules." (Whatever they are! We hear they involve fruit.) It also boasts a DJ called Coffey, also from the U.K., and a `tuck away stage' for live bands.
Meanwhile, Hip Asia, which showcases Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian and Teppanyaki cuisine, intends to be the last word in fine dining in Chennai with everything a food snoot could possible dream of, right from a dessert trolley "with fruit purees and a host of sugar free desserts" to a wine sommelier, all the way from New York.
Lounge, in style
Apparently, the newly opened Provogue Lounge at the Park Sheraton is not a bar. It's not a restaurant either. And don't even think of slotting it into the generic `night club' category. Or calling it a pub.
A new-generation hangout, it's a `lounge,' combining all the functions of a bar, nightclub and restaurant. Although it has been designed by Vikram Phadke to be a "cleaner, simple, uncluttered space," its launch was packed so tightly with the city's beautiful people that there was barely space to sneeze. But, that was just the big bang opening: flashy cocktails, thudding music and an ambience that wavered between the spirit of the old Gatsby disco (which stood in the same area earlier) and a new age bar.
Now, the Provogue lounge is back to being a place to, well, lounge. Stylish and classy, it has two levels, with a long bar downstairs, geared more towards the social butterflies, and a quieter seating area upstairs, targeted at people in the mood for a quiet evening of fusion food and inventive cocktails.
The bar, by the way, is the longest in the city with five bartenders manning it to ensure you don't wait for longer than a minute for your drink. And even if you don't drink, just watching them do the whole "Look, I can juggle scotch" thing is pretty entertaining: especially when they start sliding deliciously gaudy cocktails down the expansive bar counter.
"It's a place to unwind. To have a drink... relax," says TKA Krishnaswami, Managing Director of the Lounge, adding, "The music will be quieter here — slow rock, hip hop... " "You come in groups and create your own environment," adds Phadke, stating that he concentrated on making the lounge "fluid," so it could be a "multifunctional kind of place."
And multifunctional is the key word here. They plan to bring all kinds of events to the lounge from fashion shows to stand up comedy.
There's just one catch. Members only.
SHONALI MUTHALALY
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