I had already walked past Barbet & Pals dozens of times before they finally opened this week. M-Block Market in Greater Kailash II has been papered with new openings, but this new cocktail bar sits at the quieter, back half of the lane. A bright blue doorway, spare minimalist graffiti of birds, and tiny, anisodactyl footprints across the concrete floor are all the hints you need to know this place is keen on a theme and fond of its own jokes. It is the product of the classic “let’s open a bar together someday” trope that old friends toast over in fond future nostalgia after a long shift or a longer night. Most never get around to it, but co-owners of Delhi’s newest watering-hole, Jeet Rana and Chirag Pal did.
Jeet Rana, Chef Amninder Sandhu, and Chirag Pal
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They had spent years behind other people’s bars before they finally got around to making their own, over the better part of this year. Jeet had gone from Perch in Delhi to representing India at the largest global bartending, cocktail and hospitality competition, World Class Global in Miami, later becoming the face of Stranger & Sons gin. Chirag had run the bar at the Shangri-La Eros, then moved to Dubai as head mixologist at Five Palm Jumeirah. Between them, they have seen the world from behind the counter enough to know what they wanted their own bar to feel like.
“We were on-site almost every day,” Jeet tells me. “We even sweetened the deal with a bottle of Old Monk once just to get some of the designs right,” he chuckles. The exhaustion of the last seven months seems softened by the pride of having built something with a friend by your side.
Barbet & Pals, Delhi
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“The name took us a while,” Jeet admits. “Barbet because it’s a Himalayan bird that frequents my hometown in Uttarakhand, and because it has the word ‘bar’ in it. Pals because that’s Chirag’s last name, and also, you know…” He gestures between them. Chirag smiles shyly. “The barbet travels in pairs,” Jeet adds, “and the two of us are rarely seen without the other in sight.”
The wordplay also feels appropriately personified. Jeet is flamboyant and quick to grin, the sort of showman who thrives on banter. Chirag is more observant, with a measured way of speaking that makes you lean in. Together the lively pair feel like the kind of faces you would want to see at the end of a long day.
Inside it is compact and deliberate. The room seats around 40. Smooth wood and raw brutalist concrete set a firm, warm stage. Bird-themed art and cheeky details punctuate the walls. Staff wear olive green bird-watcher vests as uniform. The whole effect is cosy without being precious. When I point at the little bird prints that hop toward the bar, Jeet chuckles, “If you look at the little skips in its steps, it looks like it’s trying to take flight but keeps falling back down because it’s too drunk.”
They duo has threaded personal memories through the cocktail list, which looks like a messy scrapbook of scribbled ideas. The menu, called The Nest, is split into the pair’s creations. Jeet’s drinks sound playful and loud. Chirag’s feel layered with memories.
Some of the highlights of the many delicious drinks I inhaled include: the Panache — a savoury and floral single malt sitting under a saffron tincture and kahwa cordial, with the after-effects of a strawberry-and-cheese soda; the Tickle My Pickle — briny fizz of gin and dry vermouth softened by three pickled treats. The Lord — an unexpectedly complex double-banana (dehydrated + ripened) bergamot against a base of blended scotch and dry vermouth; the Cherry On Top — a darker pleasure of gin, black cherry and a coffee-spice cordial; and the Pals Lugdi — vodka and passionfruit folded around a traditional pahadi fermented rice beer (lugdi) cordial. Chirag recounts his college years in Shimla that birthed this drink. “I was a good boy who thought he had sworn off alcohol until I went to college in IHM Shimla, where my first encounter was with lugdi. It was very strong.”
(L-R) The Myol, the Pals Lugdi and The Lord
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There is also a rotating micro-menu dubbed, Bird’s Eye View, featuring cocktails inspired by the duo’s travels, with the first stop being Kumaon. I tried the earthy green Myol which featured a blanco tequila with a pine-leaf vermouth and a cordial made from mountain herbs; and the smokier Gundryani, that blended a reposado tequila with a smoked root cordial and a rim of local pisyu-loon (salted spice).
Chef Amninder Sandhu has a light hand with the food menu of little bar nibbles. The gol-gol bread comes warm and pillowy with chilli-fennel butter and a smear of nolen gur. Khichia pappad is crisp and sprinkled with onion and pomagranate and served with raw mango and mulberry chutneys. The Mrs Barbet Chicken is a smoky, burnished tikka with a soft onion foam and a tart desi chimichurri. But the highlights were the cool, fragrant squash gazpacho, served with dollops of burrata and dehydrated sourdough; and the Bar-Brät Naga pork sausage, served with a scoop of strangely thrilling fermented bamboo-shoot ice cream.
(Clockwise from L) The Gol-Gol Bread, the Bar-Brät and the Mrs Barbet
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Special Arrangement
Some of the menu still feels fresh and might require a bit of conceptual tinkering, but in a month or three the edges will smooth. A few of the drinks packed a little too much punch, leaving the finer details of their uncommon ingredients hard to trace, especially for a novice palate like mine. So if you are looking for something more straightforward and familiar, you might be left wanting. For now the unfinished quality is part of the rustic charm and the place is honest about being a work in progress.
Opening a cocktail bar in Delhi right now feels both exciting and absurd. The city is teeming with new concepts, each vying for a distinct aesthetic or a curated nostalgia. Defence Colony features some popular haunts like the vinyl bar Genre, nestled beside the iconic 4S. There are speakeasys like PCO in Vasant Vihar and Somewhere Nowhere right here in GK-2. And of course, the powerhouse Sidecar — two-time winner of “India’s Best Bar” — sits just a few metres away.
This new venture could have easily tried to be slicker or more self-conscious, but it seems to be incorporating the best of all those worlds — the friendly-neighbourhood intimacy of 4S, the experimental precision of Sidecar, and the living-room ease of Genre — yet feels distinct because it has none of the pretense. Jeet and Chirag do not see any of them as competition. “Honestly, we’re all part of the same fraternity,” Jeet says. “We’ve worked with most of these bartenders, travelled with them. We just hope to live up to the standard they’ve set.”
Barbet & Pals does several things at once. It feels like a shrine to the slow work of building a bar that can mean something to its city. It revives ingredients you might not expect to find in a cocktail on this side of the map. But mostly, it just makes room. It’s small enough to brush shoulders with strangers, but big enough to still feel private if you want to be.
Barbet & Pals is at M-Block Market, Greater Kailash-II, Delhi. A meal for two with cocktails is priced at ₹3,000+taxes. For reservations, call 9205645151.
Published – November 05, 2025 05:14 pm IST