Mocha Bar
8-9 Satyam Cineplex District Centre
Nehru Place
New Delhi 110065
Tel: 011 26466734
Timings: 11am-1am
No cover chargeThere are some flaws in the Mocha Bar experience, specifically in the listening-to-live-music-at-Mocha-Bar experience, if you’re a rocker. And most of them have nothing to do with the deco – quite possibly the product of at least four imaginations, if not a single, schizophrenic one. In its two-store narrow plan, you will find wooden chandeliers in shades of blue and pink pastel, blinding vinyl-painted furniture and deep velvet curtains hung from shiny plain curtain rods. These bohemian vestiges vie for attention with the industrial edge of gritty exposed-pipe ceilings and a long, slick, glowing bar for the inner yuppie in you. “It’s an all-day neighbourhood bar. We want people to come in at any time of the day and feel comfortable, the same philosophy we follow at the Mocha cafés,” said brand manager Deepali Gupta. “This particular space is designed to be a dark, grungy, underground rock kind of space… at the same time keeping it deconstructed and minimal.” So, noble intentions with the something-for-everyone concept, if a little overdone; still, par for the course if you’re talking nightlife in a big rich metro.
Sadly, though, we just didn’t find it worth the migraine, when it turned out to be hard work even seeing the band play at the other end of the room at a couple of recent gigs. Despite the surprisingly clear sound (usually a mess at venues this size), the shows were ruined by a number of factors for which the venue must take it on the chin. Not least among these a pillar the size of the Colossus of Rhodes smack in the middle, unusual amount of space lavished on the bar area so the customers (and musicians) are barely left standing room and the unfortunate decision to broadcast a cricket match while the band, reduced to the status of your average Boney M cover outfit, wonders why sections of the audience are cheering at some very odd points.
Admittedly you are spoilt for variety when it comes to the bar menu and those delicious fresh-fruit and ice cocktails. The beer prices too, starting at Rs 125-a-pint, don’t hurt and the jovial staff and management take the edge off of some of the malice you’re bound to feel when a band of your liking is so treated. As a platform for musicians who mean business, though, there’s little to suggest that one should take Mocha Bar very seriously at all. They have hosted groups of the ilk of Menwhopause and Half Step Down but we don’t see many of them coming back willingly. “We were standing on the monitors all the time we were on stage, my mike was on the bass monitor,” said a musician who performed there recently. “Cramped pretty much sums it up. Plus no one really comes there for the gig, they’re mostly there for the match,” he said on condition of anonymity, a condition perhaps indicative of how desperate musicians are for venues in the city, just any venues at all.
Rating
Acoustics: Three and a half stars
Gigs: Three and a half stars
Ambience: One and a half stars
F&B: Three and a half stars
Service: Three and a half stars
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