For years, Anna Nagar residents have had to hike all the way to Nungambakkam and Khader Nawaz Khan road to grab a drink. That changes now, as the area gets its first resto-bar, neatly tucked away in Anna Nagar West. If you’re looking for a night of high spirits with a local twist, Cycle Gap is it.
Magizhchi & mixology
You almost don’t expect to find a pub in the middle of an arterial road like W Block in Anna Nagar West, but as you slide into one of their American diner-inspired booths, you shut yourself from all the chaos outside. Flipping through their cuttings (drinks menu) it is easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of cocktails and mocktails they have. What’s amusing is the way they’ve named all of them. Owned by Nanda Kumar, who is the Managing Director, everything at The Cycle Gap is inspired by Kollywood and Tamil pop-culture. Cocktails or Kalakkals, start with the Thaaru Maaru, a concoction of vodka, watermelon, muskmelon, honeydew melon, green melon syrup and soda water. The fruits are scooped out into a circle and served with a wooden stirrer so you can eat the fruit whilst you sip on your drink. Idhu Eppadi Irukku was our next drink — a mix of vodka, espresso, condensed milk and fresh cream. If you’re not careful with this one, you might not walk out of this pub in one straight line, we warn you.
We recommend Glocal, a power-packed drink that has white rum, star anise, pomegranate juice, egg whites, lemon juice and Vermouth and Magizhchi (whiskey and tea) if you like your drinks strong. Their shooters include a firecracker of a drink named Mudinja idhu kudi (vodka and maanga oorga) and Kalakkal machi (vodka and pani puri).
Pub grub
We move on to the food or ‘Touchings’ — a common local jargon for bar snacks. What grabs our attention is the chicken vada served with tomato chilli chutney, which basically has all the characteristics of a vada, but the batter is now replaced with chicken. Purists might condone this, but if you love experimenting, you should definitely try this out. Syed Ikramulla, chef consultant for The Cycle Gap, says that they’ve tried to introduce a menu that is Asian, European and American but with a local touch.
“We wanted to balance out all the cuisines as well as have pub food on the table. So we have dishes like the Indo-Chinese paneer, Moroccan beef, Beef peratal, Chettinad chicken tikka and southern style chicken wings.” We try out the Herb chicken first, which is chicken cubes marinated in fresh coriander and mint, and roasted in a tandoor. It cleanses the palate immediately and will have you craving for more.
While the beef steak bites fell short of our expectation, the Moroccan chicken was cooked to perfection with its exquisite Mediterranean chargrill flavour. The mains were fairly regular dishes like the grilled tenderloin steak and garlic prawn curry, but it’s the cocktails and the starters that we’ve got our money on!
Meal for two: Rs 1,200