Monkey Bar comes to Chennai: here’s a first look
The Hindu
The popular multi-city gastropub makes its Chennai debut nearly a decade after its creation
Chef Manu Chandra recalls the Bengaluru summer of 2012, when he was busy building the first cocktail menu of his then yet-to-open Monkey Bar. “My manager and I both realised that we hadn’t had a good aam panna in really long,” recalls the chef. The plucked raw mangoes, roasted them over a coal fire — “it adds that smokiness” — and turned it into the aam panna of their childhood. And from there, created mangaa, which has ruled the roost at Monkey Bars in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata for the past nine years. Now, try it in Chennai as the brand’s latest outlet prepares to open to the public at a sprawling indoor space in VR Chennai on April 8. In town for the launch, Manu (chef partner) and pioneering restaurateur AD Singh (founder and Managing Director of The Olive Group), discuss how they encourage diners to experiment. So while a vodka-laced rasam mary cocktail might be a hit in Mumbai’s Monkey bar, a Malabari mutton kulcha served with coconut chutney is served up in Delhi.More Related News