TF Recommends: A London bar takeover, a Diwali party box and a new mithai café: 4 food and drink launches to know this week

As the festive season gets underway, the food and drink calendar in Delhi and Mumbai is filling up quickly. This week brings a mix of openings and one-off events: a visiting bar team from one of London’s best-known hotel bars, a sandwich shop that turns into a small bar at night, a new café and mithai space from a Delhi mithai brand, and a Diwali party box aimed at hosts planning smaller gatherings at home. Here’s a look at what’s new.

London’s Connaught Bar team to host guest shifts in Delhi and Mumbai this weekend: Two bartenders from London’s Connaught Bar, Giorgio Bargiani and Giorgio Iovine, will hold guest shifts at Oberoi hotel bars in Delhi and Mumbai over the coming weekend.

The first evening is at Cirrus 9, the rooftop bar at The Oberoi, New Delhi, on Saturday, October 31. The second is at The Eau Bar, The Oberoi, Mumbai, on Sunday, November 1. The Connaught Bar sits inside The Connaught hotel in London’s Mayfair district and is regularly cited among the most influential hotel bars in the world. It was ranked first on The World’s 50 Best Bars list for two consecutive years, 2020 and 2021.

Bargiani, who comes from Pisa in Italy and started out at his family’s restaurant, joined the Connaught Bar in 2014. In 2023, he was named International Bartender of the Year at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards, one of the industry’s best-known honours. The menu for both nights will include drinks from the Connaught Bar’s own list, along with cocktails created specifically for the Indian events. Among them is the bar’s well-known martini. In London, it is served from a trolley, with the guest choosing from gin, several vermouths, bitters and garnishes to build the drink to their taste. The house version uses the bar’s own London dry gin, made with mace and Amalfi lemon zest.

Guest shifts, where bartenders from one venue take over another bar for a night, have become a common feature of the international cocktail circuit. They allow drinkers to try a bar’s style without travelling to it, and have been increasingly hosted by luxury hotels in Indian metros over the past few years. Details on timings, pricing and reservations are available from the respective hotels.

Dana Choga rolls out a Diwali party box for small home gatherings

Delhi NCR restaurant chain Dana Choga has introduced a festive party box for Diwali, aimed at households hosting small get-togethers at home. The box is designed to serve groups of four to six people. The launch comes as restaurants across Indian cities increasingly turn to pre-packed festive boxes during the October–November season. With Diwali gatherings often held at home rather than in restaurants, such boxes let hosts serve restaurant food without cooking for a full table or placing multiple separate orders.

Dana Choga is a family-run brand with a long history in the region. The chain is known for traditional North Indian dishes such as dal makhani, butter chicken and paneer adrak hara dhaniya. Its menu leans on North Indian, Mughlai and kebab dishes, with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian options.

Festive specials are not new for the brand. The party box is positioned for Diwali celebrations, house parties and smaller family gatherings, where a sharing-style spread for a handful of guests is often more practical than individual meals. Details on the box’s contents, pricing and ordering channels can be found on the brand’s official website and instagram page.

Lodhi Colony sandwich shop Dumbo Deli turns into a 20-seat bar after dark

Dumbo Deli, a sandwich-and-coffee spot in South Delhi, has launched an evening bar format called The Elephant Bar, which takes over the same space at night. The deli, run by restaurateurs Prateek and Priyam, who earlier set up fine-dining venues Café Dalí and VINCI, is located in Meherchand Market, Lodhi Colony. Its daytime menu centres on Florentine-style sandwiches, inspired by Prateek’s travels in Italy. The Elephant Bar is small, with room for about 20 guests. It is open Wednesday to Sunday, from 6 pm to 1 am, and is aimed at a younger crowd looking for a casual night out rather than a formal cocktail bar.

The drinks list is short, with eight cocktails alongside neat spirits and simpler, lighter options. The house versions of two classics headline the menu: an espresso martini made with vodka, espresso and vermouth, and a negroni finished with a touch of hickory smoke. There are also a couple of more playful serves built around Chianti and prosecco.

There is no separate bar food. The deli’s regular menu of sandwiches and sides continues through the evening. Music is a key part of the format. The bar plays Y2K-era tracks and familiar favourites, and says it plans to give performance space to up-and-coming artists, though it has not yet shared a schedule or named performers.

The move reflects a wider trend in Delhi’s dining scene, where daytime cafés and delis are increasingly adding an evening bar service to make fuller use of their space. For a venue with a footprint this small, the format leans on a regular, neighbourhood crowd rather than large groups.

Arq Mithai founders open Nama, a café and mithai space at Delhi’s Dhan Mill

The team behind mithai brand Arq is opening a new space in South Delhi. Called Nama by Arq, it will sit alongside a mithai counter, the Arq Atelier, at The Dhan Mill on 100 Feet Road in Chhatarpur Hills. The venture is led by chefs Neha Lakhani and Ashay Dhoptakar. Lakhani is co-founder and chief patissier at Arq Mithai, and trained in pastry at Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa after an earlier career in finance.

Nama will focus on comfort food, with a menu built around home style pantry cooking and coffee. The Atelier will serve as a space for Arq’s mithai, which the founders say will offer a new format for the brand. Details on the menu, pricing and opening hours have not yet been announced. The name, according to the founders, comes from the phrase “in the name of the Creator”, and is meant to reflect an idea of food that begins with soil, produce and the people who grow it.

The Dhan Mill compound, a former industrial site converted into a design and dining hub, has steadily become one of South Delhi’s busier food destinations, with cafés, bakeries and restaurants drawing weekend crowds. A café-plus-mithai format also fits a broader trend in the city, where newer mithai brands are pairing traditional sweets with café service to attract younger customers outside the festive gifting season.

The space is currently hosting preview visits ahead of its formal launch. More information is available on Instagram page.