In My Room

On the first floor of an industrial complex on Park Street is a small, windowless, 20-seater bar called In My Room. Sounds pretty awful from that description, except it's anything but. 

The bar's owned by chef Auroni Mukherjee, restaurateurs Abhimanyu Maheshwari and Ramesh Kumar Agarwal, with bar expert Pankaj Balachandran behind the cocktail menu. They became pals while working on Conversation Room and Yokocho, but In My Room's markedly different, and much smaller. And while I'm generally not too fond of windowless rooms, this one wins me over with its patterned fabric walls, warm wood interiors, and soft furnishings. Once the door swings shut, the street feels pleasantly far away.

The backstory

'For months, I’d been walking past this closed shutter in the alleyway,' says Maheshwari. 'Then one day, it was opened for cleaning, and behind it was this tiny, cosy, tucked-away room. There was something instantly charming about it, and I remember being struck by all the possibilities that such a small space could hold.'

On a visit to Calcutta, Balachandran walked into the space with Maheshwari, knelt on the floor and sketched the bar where it would eventually stand. The name arrived later, when Maheshwari heard the Beach Boys’ In My Room while working out one morning.

Its suggestion of a private refuge suited the space. 'There’s something incredibly liberating about working with a smaller canvas. You can obsess over the little things without the pressure of filling a large space. And once you stop asking what a guest might want and start asking what you personally would love in a bar, the process becomes a lot simpler, more instinctive and deeply personal,'says Maheshwari.

Shared infrastructure with Yokocho makes that freedom financially possible. In My Room has its own team and identity, but access to existing resources allows the partners to attempt something Maheshwari acknowledges would be difficult as a standalone twenty-seat operation.

The room

Designer Faizan Khatri and his team at FK’D Workshop worked through eight rendered versions of the interiors before settling on what In My Room looks like today. Drawing loosely on mid-century homes, the finished room brings together aged leather, graphic artwork and personal objects. A long communal table gives the room a shared centre, while smaller seating pockets offer a little retreat. Without daylight, the lighting does much of the work: suspended pendants, wall sconces and decorative lamps illuminate individual areas, drawing attention to some objects while leaving others in shadow. Fabric-clad walls soften the acoustics, making conversation comfortable in a room where everyone sits within earshot.

A particularly sweet detail's that the tables have little identities. The high tables are called Lurkers, the 10-seater communal table's called Dining Table, and the one where Ash and Dheeraj – who manage the floor – worked on the final menu is called A&D. A small detail, but one that fits their wish for the room to acquire the familiarity of somewhere people return to.

The drinks

Balachandran’s ten-cocktail menu introduces each drink through two flavours. 'The drinks programme at In My Room is designed to mess with your brain a little,' says Balachandran. 'We bring together two interesting ideas or flavours that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to work together, creating something unique, but keeping the drink itself incredibly simple.' Pine + Eucalyptus opens with a woodland aroma, the eucalyptus lending a cooling lift to the gin and pine needle. Coconut water gives the highball a gentle sweetness and a rounded texture, balancing its sharper herbal notes. Lychee + Tomato brings tamarind and lime into a milk-washed gin drink. The names offer an accessible starting point, with the remaining ingredients intended to emerge as you drink.

Familiar cocktail styles provide the foundations for several combinations. Pepper + Strawberry gives the espresso martini a rum base, adding strawberry and pink peppercorn to espresso and Kahlua. Mango + Oolong is a Ramos-style drink with aged rum, tea, mango, citrus and cream. Tomato + Hot Sauce moves into Bloody Mary territory, with vodka, radish and lemon joined by passion fruit and vinegar. 

Ingredients from the kitchen appear throughout the list. Carrots + Almonds combine white rum with carrot, apple, mascarpone, almond and milk; Sesame + Balsamic brings tequila and mezcal together with avocado, lime, balsamic and sesame oil. Three whisky drinks take different routes. Jaggery + Corn includes popcorn and masa, while Coffee + Yuzu adds green apple and soda. Sunflower Seeds + Kombu is perhaps the most intriguing proposition on paper, bringing seeds, seaweed, coffee and brown butter into the glass.

The room’s scale gives Balachandran greater control over how these drinks reach the guest. 'This is the kind of programme I’ve always enjoyed building, where precision, temperature, the right glassware, the design of the ice and the smallest details make all the difference,' he says. 'In My Room gives me a contained, controlled space where I can really explore that complexity without making the drinks feel complicated.' Most cocktails are pre-batched, partly to spare conversation the constant percussion of shaking ice. 

The food

Chef Auroni’s menu begins with the appetite of a chef cooking at home, where familiar food tends to acquire an indulgent extra. Chips & Dip comes in two versions. One pairs chewy celeriac with almond, sour cream and beet caramel; the other combines salmon tartare, sour cream and tobiko. The reference is recognisable, though the ingredients are more ambitious than opening a packet on the sofa.

Mr. Miyagi puts barbecued unagi and soft eggs on toast. Posh Potatoes are baby Hasselbacks served with blue cheese and hot sauce. The Hasselbacks’ crisp edges give way to soft centres, with blue cheese adding a salty tang and hot sauce cutting through the richness. Ham & Cheese is a more exuberant mouthful. The crunchy éclair holds gooey Gruyère and coppa, while mostarda brings a fruity sharpness to the cheese and cured meat. Both make a case for the brighter citrus-led cocktails that offer a useful counterpoint to all that richness.

Vegetarian dishes receive similar attention. Corn to be Wild combines sweet-corn mousse, purple corn and black truffle, while Avo Aficionado explores avocado through different textures, with wasabi and guajillo chile. Among the larger plates, Ducks in a Row delivers two dozen mini duck tortellini, accompanied by duck demi and provolone. Winner Winner is chicken schnitzel with house bread, dips and pickles. There is generosity in the premise of both dishes, and a welcome willingness to serve food that could constitute a substantial meal.

Dessert follows the same associative path. Over the Moon draws on doda barfi’s dense, indulgent character, translating it into a Milo mooncake with a malty, chocolatey register. Miso caramel adds a savoury edge, while the ice cream brings a cool contrast to the rich cake. Midnight Brekkie brings together chocolate cake, peanut butter and jelly ganache, with a watermelon sorbet. 

The verdict

The scale puts the details within reach: the fabric panels, the light above the bar, the sound of a drink being made, the writings on the wall and even the shawls available for those who want to get cosy in the room. It also leaves the team very little distance from its guests. How they manage that proximity when all twenty seats fill will shape the experience as much as the cocktails.