High Spirits, Pune - review

Imagine, this place has been there for years now. I too, have been in Pune for years. Wednesday, May 19, was the first time I finally went to High Spirits. This place is located right behind Burger King in Koregaon Park.We almost drove right past it. We landed there, thanks to the Pune Mirror, which had this lil ad about the jam session there that evening. It sounded interesting and there we were.

When we walked in at about 9-9:15, there were hardly many people. They have an outside seating as well as inside. The bands play outside and the bar is indoors. One thing - the bar stools are really comfortable and thats where we sat for half the evening. The bartender, I dont remember his name now, was really sweet and in an awesome mood. He really bonded with S once he got to know he was Bengali too. He gave us two rounds of shots free. One was green-apple vodka and the other was blue-curacao with something. I ordered a Mango-Mojito (nice) It had a stick of sugarcane in it :) S had a beer. We both squabbled over who was gonna drive home and it was a lost cause.

For snacks we ordered fish tikka. I really liked it. S ordered some chicken dish which looked like huge spring rolls. He said it wasn't great. What I really liked about the place was that it was reasonably priced. The cocktails are all for Rs. 200. Some are even for 175 like the plain Mojito. Beer is for 95 - Fosters and 140 - Carlsberg.

Once the bands started playing we moved outside, only to bump into some really old friends. It was a ball after that. The first two bands that played were so-so. The third band was okay and the last band, the only one whose name i caught, Groove Junction, was really good. The solo guitar pieces was awesome. The vocalist and keyboard guy turned out to be S's school friend.

And, the best part. This place has a TT table. It is awesome to play TT to live music and to win too :) It was such good fun. We played two games and then it was time to shut down (pretty early really...1120) Then we just chatted for a while before heading out.

High Spirits is a fun place, easy on the pocket. I hear they have live music every Wednesday. Leslie Lewis is playing this Wednesday, with his daughter (an aspiring singer). I guess I'll be going. They have nice, strange art on the walls inside. I forgot to click them, maybe next time.

P.S One strange thing was that they don't have small tables. So we had to sit inside b'coz they couldn't give up large covers for just two people. Never mind, wasn't a problem. Also the food was served a bit late. Else, I had a great time.