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The Back Room opens in Chandigarh
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Thursday, 10 September, 2026, 14 : 00 PM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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A city known for its architecture, design and thoughtful urban planning now welcomes a destination that speaks the same language of precision and intent: The Back Room, the newest venture from Saanya and Akshay Verma of VTC Group, opens its doors as India’s first pour-only cocktail bar at The Toy Hotel, Sector 34A, Chandigarh.
Conceived not only as a neighbourhood bar but as a destination worth travelling for, it is a concept that challenges every convention of how cocktails are made, served and experienced. Designed by French interior architect Jean-Louis Deniot and featuring a cocktail programme by Beverage Director Tanka Gurung, it offers an entirely new reason for guests to plan their journeys around, reserve well in advance and return to, not simply for a drink, but for moments that are unlike any other in the country.
At the heart of the concept lies a radical commitment to consistency. Every cocktail begins its journey inside the lab, its dedicated bartenders’ workspace, where recipes are developed, tested and measured in grams rather than millilitres. Each drink is built, batched, rested and sealed in a large-format bottle before service, then poured at the table, so that every pour delivers exactly the same drink, every single time. The result is India’s first and only pour-only cocktail programme: no shaking, no stirring and no theatre behind the bar. Instead, the focus shifts entirely to the quality of the drink, the precision of its execution and the conversation around it.
The menu itself pays homage to Chandigarh’s modernist planning. Cocktails are ordered not by name but by intuitive three-digit code, each digit representing a drink’s base spirit, method and flavour profile: a nod to the city’s numbered sectors and structured grid. Guests order by coordinate.
The kitchen was built the other way around. Rather than bolting a food menu onto a bar, it is designed its plates backwards from the glass: a concise, globally fluent tapas menu in which every dish is umami-forward, punchy enough to hold its own against spirits and sharp enough to improve the drink beside it. The brief was the house line in one sentence: the right punch and flavour, perfect with every spirit. Organised by temperature and technique, Fresh, Street, Fire and Slow & Smoky, with a short At the Bar card, Small Plates and Afters alongside, the menu travels freely: pani puri rebuilt as Mexican agua chile, jhol momos spiked with sambal or set afloat in tom kha, corn ribs crumbed in chilli coconut, prawns straight off the plancha, burrata with charred peppers. Everything is made to be shared. The menu is the work of Chef Megha Kohli and Noah Barnes of Logic Hospitality. Food is not the opening act; it is the other half of the argument.
Saanya and Akshay Verma, founders, The Back Room and managing partners, VTC Group, said, “We’ve always believed that truly memorable hospitality experiences become destinations in their own right. The Back Room is our most personal project yet. It isn’t simply about opening another bar; it’s about creating a space that changes the way people think about cocktails, and about making bar culture relevant. We hope people don’t just come here for an evening. We hope they come to experience something they can’t find anywhere else.”
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