On a quiet side street in Bandra, away from the cacophony of Linking Road, a man spins gently in place. Sculpted and illuminated, the Paloma Man stands guard at the entrance of House of Paloma, Mumbai’s newest cocktail bar. Step inside and the city’s everyday chaos disappears. Teal and crimson walls enclose large canvases by Goa-based contemporary artist Siddharth Kerkar, a centrepiece chandelier blooms into a sculptural agave plant, and the cocktails aspire to be cultural rituals. Make no mistake: this “cocktail-forward, art-driven” bar is as much about performance as it is about drinking. House of Paloma suggests that a bar can be a gallery, a museum, a cultural institution — equally seductive and symptomatic of how culture, class, and nightlife are colliding in a city where belonging is increasingly performative.
From Dive Bars to “Mini Museums”
Mumbai’s bars have always mirrored the city’s socio-economic shifts. The post-liberalisation 1990s gave rise to a duopoly between luxury hotel lounges and neighbourhood watering holes. The IT boom of the 2000s brought the global gastropub aesthetic — accessible to young professionals but still aspirational.
House of Paloma represents the next shift in the city’s drinking culture: the cocktail bar as a cultural institution, blending drinks with art and curated music with museum-like interiors. The transition reflects not only changing tastes but changing demographics. The new urban bourgeoisie — affluent, mobile, media literate, and Instagram native — seeks spaces that allow them to perform identity: to drink, yes, but also to position themselves within a cosmopolitan narrative.
The name House of Paloma is inspired by Latin America, referencing the popular tequila-based cocktail Paloma while honouring its lively flavours and energy. “We wanted House of Paloma to feel like a museum, a bar that comes alive with art and cocktails,” says Prathik Shetty, one of the co-founders. “The idea was to take inspiration from Spain and Mexico, where Paloma is more than a drink, it is a cultural ritual, and reimagine it in a playful, approachable way.”
A Taste of Cosmopolitan Belonging
House of Paloma’s menu, developed by head mixologist M Sunil Prathab with consultants Rahul Raghav and Karl Fernandes, is heavy with Spanish and Mexican influences and stages Latin America as a source of both authenticity and aspiration. Signature cocktails like the Paloma 1950 or Don Pablo are invitations to sip one’s way into an elsewhere. Ingredients are shared between the bar and kitchen, led by Chef Pranay Shinde, creating pairings that feel connected across the table. With seasonal menus and limited-edition runs, Paloma’s bar is always evolving, familiar, yet surprising on every visit.
This is where Paloma sits within Mumbai’s larger gentrification story. Bandra — once known for its working-class East Indian and Catholic enclaves — has, over the last two decades, become shorthand for high living, craft coffee, and nightlife designed for those who can afford to curate their identity. House of Paloma is the next step in this trajectory. It promises discovery, intimacy, and artistry — for those who can afford it.
Bandra — The Global Village
It is telling that co-founders Prathik Shetty, Chethan Hegde, and Samarth Shetty chose Bandra to build the House of Paloma. The suburb has long been Mumbai’s laboratory for reinvention — a space where the city’s cosmopolitan aspiration coexists with the remnants of village lanes and family-owned bakeries. South Mumbai trades on heritage and exclusivity; Lower Parel sells the spectacle of scale. Bandra, meanwhile, is where the city comes to play at being global, without leaving behind its neighbourhood intimacy. House of Paloma is both a product of and a participant in this performative identity economy.
Art & Design As Backdrop
The interiors, designed in collaboration with architect Sumessh Menon, are curated as an extension of the founders’ art-forward ethos. It would be easy to dismiss the art-driven bar as another form of lifestyle branding. After all, a chandelier shaped like an agave plant and hand-painted ceramics make for excellent Instagram fodder. But Paloma’s collaboration with Kerkar and Zahabiyah Gabajiwala’s ZAworks implies something more deliberate at play: the attempt to position the bar as part of Mumbai’s ever-evolving culture economy.
The question is whether the city is ready to accept this framing. Can a bar be a museum if its primary currency is tequila shots? Can art survive when it doubles as a backdrop for Instagram reels? House of Paloma gambles on the idea that Mumbai’s young, mobile, globally attuned crowd will embrace both. Perhaps that is why a place like the House of Paloma matters. It doesn’t simply serve tequila with grapefruit cordial; it stages a performance of what Mumbai wants to be — cosmopolitan, creative, and elevated — orbiting both promise and provocation.
TL;DR:
Address: House of Paloma, Number 545, 33rd Road, Near McDonalds Linking Road, Ground Floor Excel Entertainment, Bandra West 400052, Mumbai, Maharashtra
Time: 5:30 pm - 1:30 am | Open all days
Price for two: INR 2800.00 for 2
Reservations: +91 9892632572
For more information follow @houseofpaloma.bar
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