BangaloreMirror
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 2014
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sually when there’s talk of something brewing in southBangalore, the reference is tocoffee, and when names suchas Giltasura or Kamacitra arebrought up, you’d be pardoned forthinking that it’s about some new playat Ranga Shankara. That probably ex-plains the open jaws, quickly followedby excitement, when I mentioned thatamicrobrewery had opened in JP Na-gar. Spread across two floors for now, itgoes by the name of Brewsky, andthough they ran out of brew samplesby the time we visited — and that was areal pity, because they really soundedinteresting on paper — there was noshortage of sky. On one side, the barstools lining the wall on the lower flooroffer a wonderful view of SouthBangalore’s skyline — one of the bestI’ve seen. On the other side one canview the brewery itself, glowing blue atnight, with graphics of the brew characters. The upper floor is alfrescoand would be perfect for a brunch. An-other floor is planned below soon,with space for live performances — wegot a preview and the Viking helmetlampshades and ‘chandeliers’ made of beer bottles all pointed to a hangoutwith character. Watch out for a few interesting elements of a bikertheme too! They plan to serve the full-fledged beer menu in about a month,for now you’ll have to make do with astandard alcohol menu.
Appetisers:
The menu is fairly standardpub grub with a few unique dishes.Since the house brews were not availa-ble, we decided to begin with a coupleof drinks from the limited bar menu.The Green Apple Martini had just theright amount of alcohol and fruity fla-vour to be a refreshing drink. The Cur-ry Caipiroska added a desi flavour tothe standard cocktail using curry leav-es, and was quite good. The Puree of mushroom with poached chickensoup was mildly spicy, flavourful, andthey were generous with the chicken.The Chicken stuffed with pickledchillies actually turned out to be a de-scription in reverse — it was a chilli baj-ji with a chicken stuffing — but thiswas our favourite dish anyway! ThePaneer Tiranga Rubiyat Soola hadfresh cottage cheese but the flavourswere really mild. The prawn dishwasn’t available so we decided to trythe Crispy Zatar Calamari, which wasatad greasy but had well-cooked suc-culent squid and a dip that com-plemented it very well. TheFive Spices Roasted PorkRibs was a replacementfor a lamb dish, butfound favour thanks toits well cooked meat andspicy flavours.
Entrée:
Pizzas, burgers, pas-ta and a few assorted steaksmake up the main course menu.The Asian Chicken Pizza arrived first,and we wondered what was Asianabout the chicken other than its loca-tion. But if one ignored that, the thincrust pizza was quite good. The VodkaCream pasta sounded a very interest-ing combination on paper, but it wastoo bitter! The chicken they servedwith it was not bad though. We thentried the One Way ticket ChickenBurger, which had two mildly spicypatties. Not the best we’ve had, butreasonably good. The Brewsky fish ‘n’chips was our favourite main coursedish with excellent battered fish,though the fries could have been bet-ter. The Stuffed Breast of Chicken wasalso very good — excellent sauce and amushroom filling.
Afters:
Three options, andthe Dual Soufflé wasn’tavailable, but a HoneyWalnut Tart took itsplace. The Chocolate Ci-gars with a chocolatesauce was the best of thelot, closely followed by theMadras Kaapi mousse, whichfully lived up to its name in flavourand texture, and also featured acreamy, fruity dip. The Honey WalnutTart was also not bad, though not inthe same league as the other two.
In all:
Brewsky has a unique proposi-tion to offer, especially given its loca-tion. Superb ambiance, a view thatone can go on and on about, good mu-sic, and food that will not disappoint,Brewsky has everything going for it,though it doesn’t come cheap. Thebrew will obviously be a major factor,and if that works out fine, South Ban-galore will have every reason to grinand beer!
Bangalore Mirror reviews anonymously and pays for meals
Manu Prasad
bmfeedback@gmail.com
With brew, sky would be the limit!
BM VERDICT
Cuisine
Multi-cuisine
Owner(s)
Rajaram Gupta,Narayan M,Rolf Marren
Chef
Xavier
Alcohol
Yes
Wine list
Limited menu, beershould start flowing in a month
Price range
For about
`
1,800,you could share acocktail, a non-veg starter, a non-veg main course and adessert (inclusive of taxes and servicecharge)
Parking
Yes
Wheelchair
No
accessService
Prompt, efficient,friendly
Music and
Remains in the
Sound level
background, couldfaintly detect jazz
Ambience
Décor with character,functional seating,fantastic view
Hours
12.30 – 11 pm
Home delivery
No
Reservations
Yes, the place tendsto get very full very fast! 1 C 1 M S J N 2 P - 5 9
Future plans include shifting focus to anew menu which will feature dishes with alot of fruity flavours, and already has somedesserts in mind for Valentine’s Day such asRed Velvet Eclairs, Strawberry Tiramisu andWhite Passion Fruit Bomb.
—Sindhuja Balaji
in mind, Lavonne engages with people ea-ger to learn such dishes and conducts one-day weekend programmes from 10 am to 4pm. Apart from that, serious bakers can doafive-month diploma with the six in-housechefs and will get a certificate from City &Guilds, London.Some of the ingredients are importedfrom outside, such as berries and fruit fill-ings from Belgium, France and Italy. Johnybelieves that while chocolate-based prod-ucts will always remain popular, the averageconsumer is more than happy to try outsomething like macaroons as well. With thistravelling more, and knew more aboutcakes and desserts such as éclairs and ga-naches,” says the 25-year-old.Lavonne aims to introduce the averageBangalorean to raspberry tiramisu, blackforest cheesecake and chestnut opera,among other desserts. Lavonne also spe-cialises in customised cakes for baby show-ers, weddings, each of which takes abouttwo days to prepare. Their signature dishesinclude Moist Dark Chocolate Cake, BlackForest Cheesecake, Chocolate Ganacheand a Classic Opera — a combination of al-mond sponge, coffee butter cream andchocolate ganache. Apart from these, Johnyalso recommends the macaroons — thereare six fruity flavours to choose from like lemon, raspeberry and chocolate caramel and French desserts like crèmebrulee and fruit flan.
F
resh macaroons served with a pot of coffee, and coffee butter cream withchocolate ganache… this isn’t fromthe menu of a posh, Western-suburban res-taurant but your neighbourhood patisserie.Lavonne Academy of Baking Science andPastry Art does more than whip up a delec-table set of pastries and cakes, it alsoteaches you how to make these sweet eats.Lavonne was started by executive chef Vinesh Johny a little over a year ago. A hotelmanagement student from Bangalore, Joh-ny lived in Kuala Lumpur for a while and alsoworked with Starwood Hospitality. While inKL, he and his friends Evan and Lijo thoughtabout starting a customised bakery, whichwould make lesser-known confectioneriesin Bangalore. “We were intrigued by the waythe hospitality sector was evolving — a lothad to do with the fact that people were
This academy-cum-bakery shines the spotlight on globally-popular desserts such as macaroons and fruit tarts
BM SAVEUR:
LAVONNE ACADEMY OF BAKING SCIENCE AND PASTRY ART
From top: Chicken Stuffed Chilli, 5 Spic-es Roast Pork, Brewsky Fish ‘n’ Chips,Chocolate Cigars
KAUSHIK J NMANU PRASAD
From left: Black Forest Cheesecake, Lemon Tart and Croissants are some of the popular eats offered at Lavonne
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