Amethyst Cafe in Chennai has a bar now!

Expect signature cocktails, bar snacks and the customary charming ambience that is replete with vintage finds and a lush garden backdrop.
Wild Garden Bar, Amethyst
Wild Garden Bar, Amethyst

With new bars and lounges opening every week in the city, the party mood is well established for Chennai weekends. However, we are curious about one of the quietest bar launches in town. There was no thumping party to herald the arrival of this much awaited bar license recently. So, we inquisitively headed to Amethyst to check out the Wild Garden Bar — possibly the best kept secret of the month; the watering hole is tucked into the back of a corridor.

Chilli Cheese Toast at the Wild Garden bar
Chilli Cheese Toast at the Wild Garden bar

As is customary in Amethyst, once we step into the quaint space we promptly get carried away with gorgeous paintings, the little touches of exquisite aesthetics that include twirls of indoor plants in artisanal pots, hanging off a restored chest of drawers and such.

A vintage chaise lounge distracts us momentarily and we stretch ourselves on it and idly wonder about brunches and sundowners. But the purpose of our visit soon presents itself and we find ourselves nibbling on some gooey cheddar topped triangles of cheese toast from the modest offerings of the new bar snacks menu that includes homely chicken chops.

Fig, Apple & Cucumber Salad
Fig, Apple & Cucumber Salad

Kiran Rao, proprietor of Amethyst, promises us, “We would like to explore more cocktail recipes with homemade mixes… and certainly will be stocking whatever interesting wines and spirits that are possible to access locally.”

Being regulars at Amethyst, it has been a long time fantasy of ours to have their popular fresh sugarcane juice with a measure of alcohol. Craving fulfilled; the mix concocted by Sakthi Dasan, the bartender, is exactly how we imagined it to be — sweet with hints of ginger, lime and spiked with rum.

Hibiscus margarita cocktail
Hibiscus margarita cocktail

The Chicken Yakitori is filling and generous in quantity. We love the Fig, Apple & Cucumber Salad that literally personifies the wild garden vibe with fresh figs, crunchy cucumber and fruits for good measure. A nannari mojito keeps us perched on the barstools a bit longer and then we find ourselves wandering away to pick a jar dessert or a signature cake from the usual rack at the café.

Located at Royapettah.

Bar snacks for two at INR 500.

— Sabrina Rajan

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