In 2012 ,a new tradition – tried, tested and passed in New York and London – was introduced to New Delhi. The brains behind the unveiling of the speakeasy trend in the capital city was Rakshay Dhariwal, owner of PCO, ATM and recently opened Ping’s Cafe Orient. We get along wildly with RD, because like us, he loves a good secret and has actively co-built a culture of challenging public norms in the city. We sat down with Rakshay over a tumbler of a stiff Old Fashioned (his and our cocktail-fave) and spoke about what propelled him into (co-)launching this trend in the capital.
The young entrepreneur is a marketing graduate from Indiana University in the United States, and he does not shy away from admitting why he chose the university. He says, “Well, it was ranked as the number one party school in the country the year I went. I graduated with a degree in marketing and a PhD in partying!”
Upon graduation, although he was offered a cushy marketing job in San Diego, which he thinks is by far the best city in America with phenomenal food, he returned to India with dreams of establishing India’s “very first cruise line”. He said, “In my final year of university, I pretty much stopped studying and I was just working on the business plan for this cruise line.”
But alas, the 2007 financial crisis washed away his business plans. He then turned to his other passion – cocktails, good food and pampering. Setting up a wildly-successful speakeasy bar didn’t come soon and easy. Rakshay returned to India and opened Kerala Ayurveda, which is an ayurvedic wellness centre. He says he’s “someone who gets bored easily so after the wellness project, I needed something else to occupy me” and that’s when he flew the speakeasy trend from the underground and surreptitious bars of New York and London to the capital city.
He and his business partner (and amazing sister) Radhika experienced a lot of “sleepless nights” and were very nervous when launching PCO because “we were so new to the industry”. “With Ping’s, though, we were so laid back because it was like, been there, done that.” Safe to say that all of Rakshay and Radhika’s ventures, without a doubt, take the award for the best cocktails in town. “Mixing cocktails is very much like cooking”, he says, “you have to know your flavour profiles and know what will work with what, and experiment at the end of the day”.
Dining and drinking is a large part of people’s lives, believes Rakshay, and that is why he thinks he has three wildly successful restaurant. He says, “what else does one do? We work, eat and drink! That’s what life’s about!”
The speakeasy trend has picked up well in Delhi and it’s definitely working for Rakshay’s two furtive bars. After completely establishing Delhi, Rakshay has plans of stretching the trend to Bombay and Dubai.
The speakeasy trend, RD and us agree, has changed the way people network in the capital. It’s given people an opportunity to challenge themselves by pushing their boundaries to meet new people. It’s brought back a sense of nervousness, excitement and butterflies otherwise felt on a first date. With bars like PCO and ATM, and DSSC secret suppers, we’re sure that this trend is surely here to stay.
In true DSSC style, we asked him some quick fire questions:
- What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?
- In college in Indiana, I saw people eating Cicadas but that was too much for me. The ‘strangest’ is actually not that strange — escargots.
- Your go-to comfort food?
- Roast Chicken
- Favourite restaurants/bars in Delhi?
- Royal China, Le Cirque, Megu, Moti Mahal
- Your choice of beverage that keeps going in the day? How do you have it?
- Fresh Lime soda, salted.
- Crème brûlée or molten chocolate cake?
- Molten choco cake
- Favourite midnight snack?
- Bagel and cream cheese or Ramen
- If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
- Singaporean Chicken rice
- Choice of eggs: Fried, Scrambled or Benedict?
- Benedict
This conversation is a part of the DSSC Secret Conversation Series, where we get candid with the ace of base industry disrupters.
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