Happy hours in Gurugram Premium

Experience the freedom of Gurugram's BYOBs, from corporate drink-ups to celebrity visits, with multi-level seating, dance floors & plastic glasses.

In the parking lot adjoining Where Else, one of Gurugram’s most-coveted open-air bar-pub-clubs on the Golf Course Extension road in Sector 59, are Porsches, BMWs, and Mercedes-Benzes, even the odd Astin Martin. The neon lights of the signage reflect off their shiny surfaces. People from DLF’s Camellias and Magnolias, luxury properties in the vicinity of ₹50 crore upward, come in, dropping names (obviously — this is The ‘Gaon), to cut queues for a table.

They can afford to go to some of the best bars in Delhi-NCR — Sidecar for instance, that’s on the world’s top 50 bars. They’re here instead, at a local BYOB, bring-your-own-bottle place, where they’ll buy liquor from the theka (booze shop) outside, and carry it in to drink in plastic glasses, paired with some (fairly mediocre) chicken tikka. Here, they’ll rub shoulders with 20-somethings, — the legal age to drink is 21 in Delhi-NCR, mid-lifers, and corporate types, men and women who have gathered at the BYOB’s various levels. They revel in the freedom in a city that has seen development over the past two decades. There are no ‘uncles’ judging, or children running around, or handbag stools to display brands.  

Gurugram’s BYOBs or ahatas, as they are locally known, were once places where middle-class executives went after a day’s work. They would buy bottle of beer or wine at the liquor store next door, eat a snack, and catch up on office gossip. The word comes from Hindi, meaning premises, also called anumat kaksh or permit room, a throwback to pre-liberalised India, where a room within a restaurant was demarcated to serve alcohol, and was mostly frequented by men.  

In the three or four years before they became popular, ahatas were simple open-air spaces with no frills — just tables, chairs, and a basic menu. “Post-COVID, this changed, with people preferring open spaces over closed ones,” explains Lalit Khurana, the general manager at Where Else, called WE, abbreviated by generation Z that shortens everything. The profile changed from economics to a new kind of culture that shunned congested night clubs as disease spreaders.

Today, there are 54 ahatas across Gurugram, Delhi’s corporate suburb that stretches to 1,253 square kilometres. From last year to this financial year, Haryana’s revenue department has seen between a 200 and 236% hike in the auctioning rights of the lands on which these establishments are run. Each year, a new auction brings in more money.

“The State excise policy rules in 1988 find mention of aahaats, temporary enclosures close to liquor vends, basically to prevent drinking in the open,” says Amit Bhandari, deputy excise and taxation commissioner, excise (East). “However, over the past couple of years, these places have ‘graduated’ from unsightly spaces fenced with bamboo mats into popular eating and drinking spaces, rechristened BYOBs, offering tough competition to bars and pubs,” he adds.

The informality of the space made it conducive to being different things to different people: the staff is pestered to discuss the details of a deal for mass booking, while a couple may walk in with their adult children. Now, some have bright multicoloured lights visible from great distances, attracting those who drive down the highway, like Ebowla; while some stay simple, with fairy lights, like Kavo. Many have celebrities coming by, live bands, and even dance performances. They’ve gone from corporate drink-ups to birthday and wedding anniversary celebrations, and have a strong social media presence with postings about upcoming events, videos of guests talking about their experience, and pictures of people having a good time. Like bars, they hire a professional photographer to take pictures for social media.