Licence to Swirl

Riyaaz Amlani,managing director of Impressario that runs Mocha and Bespoke Café,explains that there could be a variety of factors for wine-only licences not being common. “Firstly,it depends on positioning and how the establishment wants to be seen. Secondly,it’s also about the effort—the procedure is roughly the same,so some people think they may as well get a full liquor licence. The last factor is that there simply isn’t enough awareness about this option,” he explains. An example of a café that didn’t opt for a wine-only or a wine-and-beer licence is Indigo Delicatessen,Colaba. It epitomises casual dining and has significant wine sales; manager Chetan Patel admits that spirit sales are insignificant. “However,” he says,“It is about availability even if there aren’t many requests for spirits and part of our brand strategy.”

Mocha was one of the first cafés in the city to serve wine around 2003,and Amlani is pleased with the fact that wine was classified with beer in a single licence back then. “Wine sales have been growing exponentially at Mocha save last year. Wine conceptually suits Mocha tremendously as people who appreciate the varying flavours of coffee tend to appreciate wine.” Moshe’s in Colaba similarly obtained a wine licence around five years back,and owner Moshe Shek thinks he benefited from having the option to serve wine as several guests requested it. Shek,however,doesn’t gush about wine sales and feels that “drinking wine with food is still something that we don’t do since it isn’t part of our culture.” Given that The Den opened three weeks ago,owner Gaurish Rantnekar is naturally bullish about his concept of serving wine and wine cocktails. “Of course,most people drink spirits and beer,but wine sales are picking up and a lot of the female population and corporate groups prefer wine since it is easier to drink,”he says.

We are simply pleased that there are more options for having a nice glass of wine,and hope that there will be more cafés that serve wine. The success of such places,of course,depends on demand. So,next time you go out,go have a meal with some wine. Because the government wants you to.