Hammer & Song - Jazzing up the Neighbourhood

SoBo's newest and coolest bar has the most enticing kitchen. Cocktails and small plates and music to match. A cause for celebration for Bombay's toniest part of town, Cuffe Parade



Text: Farzana Contractor
Photographs: Farzana Contractor & Sanjay Ramchandran

Even if no one from beyond Cuffe Parade came along for a drink, a bite and a song, it wouldn't be an hammer and tong situation for father and son duo Amrish and Ayush, so well has the neighbourhood appreciated their newest offering at the World Trade Centre. Hammer & Song, the cool bar right across the doorway of their well-entrenched and popular resto-bar, Flamboyant&eacute, is the most hip and happening watering hole at Cuffe Parade. I have no doubts that restaurateur Amrish Arora must be the toast of one of the toniest neighbourhoods of Bombay. For what could be better than returning home from office, showering, changing, grabbing your wife's hand and walking down the lane for a drink, a few small plates and then heading back home and catching up on TV? Well, it could only be topped by late night weekends, catching up at H&S with the boys, friends you grew up in that lovely part of reclaimed Bombay. Why, Amrish has actually created a club of sorts for the denizens of SoBo, only the billiard table is missing!
You know, I have a unique association with Amrish. Three decades ago, we began our career innings more or less around the same time. He, in hospitality, me, in media. He was bo a day after I was, same month, but years apart and in sharing a star sign we share many similar traits.
I was his chief guest, cutting the ribbon at his very first venture, the launch of Go Bananas, a disco, at Vithal Kamat's, Kamat Plaza which metamorphised into The Orchid, situated near the airport in Bombay. That was in the early 90s, when he also pioneered the concept of a rain dance, at the same venue. Both very creative and enterprising.
When he launched Fountain Sizzlers, within a year or so of being in the business, still a greenhorn at age 22, I was among those sitting on the cane chairs he quickly set up on the narrow footpath for guests spilling out of the tiny restaurant, right across from the Hong Kong Bank building at Flora Fountain. Those were the days! Then again when he got his first home catering order, I was at the party too. It was his first client and mentor Sabira Merchant, who also gave my magazine, UpperCrust, its' name. She was hosting one of her sought-after dinners at her fabulous apartment at Malabar Hill. She had fallen in love with Amrish's biryani that she ate at the Fountain Sizzlers launch. Not that that was the fare Amrish was planning to establish, it was just a convenient "launch fare".  At Fountain Sizzlers Amrish offered an array of tempting sizzling-steak platters which pretty much were the best sizzlers in town and continue to be that almost three decades later.
Amrish's uncanny tie with me carried on... 17 years ago when we launched UpperCrust Show, India's first food and wine exhibition at the Expo Centre of the World Trade Centre, a beautiful tree in a neglected courtyard prompted me to weave in al fresco cookery demos by hot-shot chefs of the time (Nelson Wang, Jafferbhai, Imtiaz Qureishi, etc). Two years later, Amrish sensing an opportunity, got permissions in place and created– literally out of nothing but a barren enclosure of pillars and arches, a charming restaurant called Flamboyant&eacute! We lost the space but Bombay gained a good restaurant so I forgave Amrish!
Well, a lad then, a man of 50 now, Amrish is a talented guy. But much more than that he is a hard-working visionary, a true restaurateur, with his head screwed firmly on his shoulders. He also doesn't easily put his neck on the chopping block. Whatever he does, is thought through thoroughly. He does not take chances. His growth has been slow and steady. I don't think he borrows money to start his ventures, certainly not investor money, as is the current trend. From that point of view, he works and walks the talk. The reason for his success, a reason for him to celebrate.

But he is lucky too. To have a wife who stands by him and supports him. Shalini is the inspiration behind his projects. His sounding board, his interior designer. Her contribution is immense and one of them is also Ayush, their son! She wins hands down in the nurturing process, having developed in Ayush a value system which today bears fruit.
It would not be wrong to say that Hammer & Song is Ayush's baby, with help from dad and mom of course.
 A bright boy, Ayush at 24 is older than when his dad first started, but then he was busy getting educated, higher studies and all that, including doing a mixology course at  the European Bartender School in Sydney, Australia. His apprenticeship had already started in the family business, which also incidentally includes Boardwalk, a seaside caf&eacute at the pier at Alibaug.
Ayush is absolutely gung-ho and totally hands on at H&S. The bar is what tu s him on. He was clear from the beginning that he would put all his learning into its various aspects, one of which was to create, in-house, their very own mixes. You know, the ingredients needed to juggle up interesting cocktails; syrups, bitters, liqueurs and the like.
Needless to add, the cocktail menu which has been carefully curated by Ayush is enticing enough, including Limoncello Sour, Barrel Blend Old Fashioned, Pomegranate Gin Cutter and Espresso Martini.
The small plates bar menu has Amrish's magic touch. He has put in all his years of expertise into crafting excellent dishes that blend well with the drinks and the mood. Continental, Western and Asian.
So if a full-on, heavy duty, four-course meal is not your idea of dinner, H&S is the perfect place. You could just select a few small plates to go with your cocktails and conversations and feel just as happy, or happier. For if you ask me, I increasingly believe in the concept of small plates myself.  Finger food, nice nibbles, eat at leisure, like something very much, order again, another portion of the same! You can't do that with a main course, right?  It's for this same reason that I love eating out in Spain; tapas is so much fun! The offerings at H&S include a variety of flatbreads, Lamb Galauti served atop sheermals, Tuscan Roast Chicken, Teriyaki Lamb Chops and Bangers & Mash. Such an entertaining way to spend an evening with friends.
At H&S, I noticed something else; the sound system. It was pretty good. The acoustics were perfect. And that I believe was Ayushu00b4s doing again. He just knew what the "dudes" would like! And so they went ahead and installed a high-end, sophisticated, Bose system which allowed them that luxury. An important factor contributing towards the pleasing ambience. DJ nights and live gigs!
Hammer & Song is much more than a craft bar and kitchen. Open all day, it could be a caf&eacute, a restaurant, a lounge, a club, a bar! Just depends on what you want it to be, at what time you are there, with whom and doing what.
The 4,000 square ft space is spread over on two levels. On the top is where a buffet is spread out at lunch and it's a m&eacutelange of office-goers, kitty party types, WTC shoppers etc. Post lunch, around tea time, you see the yuppy neighbourhood kids sauntering in, in small groups, drinking coffee, munching on snacks, chatting and laughing. As evening sets and the sunlight which was streaming in ebbs and the lights come on, young adults arrive and slowly the bar seems to come alive. Now there are couples around who have come looking for an ap&eacuteritif, a glass of wine, a beer. Getting over a day of work, just hanging out, chilling down. They may stay on, or they may make do with an early night. But as the lights are dimmed and the music pumped up, the buzz at H&S changes. Its avatar now is that of a lounge, a happening bar. It's an ambience created by regulars. The comfort of going to a place that gives you a sense of belonging. Of ordering from a kitchen where you don't necessarily have to look at the menu. You just know what your favourites are.
Mine seem to be Baked Brie, Buckwheat Protein Bowl and the Feta and Roasted  Beetroot Flatbread. I can eat this each time I am there.
 

Address: Shop No. 10, The Arcade,
World Trade Centre, Cuffe Parade, Colaba
Mumbai 400005
Ph: 022 4064 7733