“ Friendu, love-matteru, feel ayitaapla, half saapita cool ayiduvaa pulae... ”
For most fans of Tamil cinema, an instant grin would break out remembering the famous dialogue from Vijay Sethupathi’s Idharkuthane Aasaipattai Balakumara . That is exactly what The Cycle Gap wants Chennaiites to do: smile and bask in nostalgia, surrounded by all things that resonate with the city’s vibe. Posters of movie dialogues, motorbike parts hanging on a wall, a pool table, and all things quirky make up the resto-bar’s atmosphere.
“Your neighbourhood pub next-door,” is how one of the four partners, Raghu Raman, describes The Cycle Gap, which opened its first outlet in Anna Nagar two years ago.
The Adyar branch, just under two months old, seeks to give customers more of the same.
“The feeling we are aiming for is ‘glocal’. Be it ambience or drinks and food, they are global flavours with a smattering of local influences,” adds Raghu.
Take for instance, the kadala podu cocktail, our favourite among what the mixologist serves us. On the rocks, this is a drink you would sip leisurely: strong, with a kadala mittai -infused bourbon, it delivers quite a kick. An after-taste of roasted peanuts is a stand-out feature here, as is the clothes peg attached to the glass to hold up a little bag of peanut barfi. Another hit is the ‘Milo ma’ cocktail — a glorious concoction of bourbon and everyone’s favourite childhood drink.
The food menu has a ‘specialty’ page, that is street food-themed, in tune with everything else here. Like the thallu vandi they use to cart and serve food on busy nights. The potlam chicken varuval (chicken masala wrapped in banana leaf) is tender and has the right amount of spice to balance the hit from cocktails. However, the sumptuous-sounding kozhi vada (chicken-flavoured dal vada ) turns out bland and lacks crunch.
- 73, Kalki Krishnamurthy Salai, LB Road, Adyar
- Hits:Kadala podu and Milo ma cocktails, potlam chicken varuval
- Misses:Annanaspaneer tikka , kozhi vada
- Cost for two: ₹1,600
- 9600017171
Meanwhile, cocktails keep flowing: silver pigeon is an amalgamation of sugarcane juice and jeera water with vodka, which is subtle and soothing. The palm toddy, a refreshing mix of chilled coconut water and rum, has ice fruit jubes at the bottom, which fuse with the drink to produce a unique colour. Surreal.
While service is uniformly efficient, the best part of the night is salsa and bachata dancers sashaying around (every Thursday). The pub has special nights for two-piece bands, standup comics and DJs too.
Back to the food: annanas paneertikka comes with a sweet chutney. The pineapple yoghurt mix though, isn’t spicy like the menu promises, and in fact, quite bland. But the beer-battered mushrooms it accompanies more than make up for it, and there is plenty to go around.
For the main course, the thin-crust chicken pizza made with in-house dough is delicious, but not filling. So we order a couple of soft roti s and a solid, simple chicken makhani with generous chunks of meat to comfortingly end the night.
