FNB News - Church Street SOCIAL reopens in Bengaluru

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COMPANY REPORT

Church Street SOCIAL reopens in Bengaluru

Tuesday, 03 November, 2026, 13 : 00 PM [IST]

Our Bureau, Mumbai

Church Street SOCIAL, the first-ever SOCIAL, has reopened following a complete renovation, returning to the Bengaluru Street where the SOCIAL story first began. A cult address that has grown alongside the city and its people, the renewed outpost takes its cues from Church Street itself: a living, breathing public space shaped over time by architecture, culture, expression and counterculture. The new Church Street SOCIAL reclaims that idea of the street in its own subversive way, allowing the familiar and the unexpected to exist together as the space enters its next chapter.

Church Street has never belonged to one moment in time. Early art deco influences and revival-style homes, culminating in the church at the end of the street, gradually gave way to a more unfiltered urban character. At different points, it has felt polished, chaotic, shadowy, crowded and unfinished, becoming the kind of public canvas where people could leave behind their own marks. At the centre of that evolution has always been the language of the street: art, expression and counterculture that push back against everything overly refined, exclusive or orderly.

That spirit now moves through the reimagined Church Street SOCIAL. Large openings created through the façade deliberately blur the line between the outlet and the bustling street outside, making the city part of the experience within. Walls are treated as surfaces for expression, while terrariums emerge from art deco-inspired inlets and the familiar warmth of brick is reworked against SOCIAL’s original grunge aesthetic. Rather than polishing away the imperfections, the space embraces them, turning the act of disruption itself into what the design calls “radical vandalism.”

The idea unfolds through details rooted in the visual language of Bengaluru and South India. Retro Kannada hand-painted advertisements appear as ghost signs; the Nazar Battu, finds a place within the space; the street-side arcade station makes a return; and South Indian comic culture is brought back into focus. Elsewhere, the voyeurism of the street is reframed inside the washrooms, while LED strips reinterpret the colour and energy of festivities running through the outlet. Together, these elements allow the past, present and future of Church Street to sit in conversation rather than compete with one another.

Speaking about the reopening, Riyaaz Amlani, Founder & Managing Director, Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality Pvt. Ltd., said, “Church Street is where SOCIAL first found its voice, so returning to this space came with a responsibility to understand what made it matter in the first place. It was never only about the four walls. It was about the street outside, the people who came through the doors and the freedom to make the space their own. As SOCIAL has grown, that belief has remained central to how we think about our neighbourhoods. With the reimagined Church Street SOCIAL, we are carrying that original spirit forward while creating room for a new generation to add its own layer to the story.”

The reopening also brings Church Street SOCIAL back as a space for the many ways Bengaluru uses SOCIAL through the day. From coffee and work to long lunches, catch-ups, music, drinks and late-night plans, the outlet continues the all-day rhythm that has always defined SOCIAL. The #Khaana menu brings back familiar favourites including Fully Reloaded Nachos, Ghee Roast Masala Paneer, Chaats, China Boxes and more while the #Peena menu features cult SOCIAL signatures including the L.L.I.T. and Banarasi Patiala.

Beyond food and drinks, Church Street SOCIAL will continue to create room for music, artists, cultural programming, creative collaborations and the communities that have always shaped its outposts. The space is designed to remain open to different people, different plans and the stories that build around them over time.

More than a renovation, the return of Church Street SOCIAL brings the first chapter of SOCIAL into conversation with what comes next. The rawness of the street remains, but in a new form; familiar references return, but are allowed to evolve; and a space that generations of Bengaluru have known is once again open to being claimed, changed and made personal. It is the first SOCIAL, reimagined for the Church Street of today, but still a place people can return to as if they had never left.