It’s About Time: 'Night Train' Is Bringing The World’s Best Bars To India

“There's something wonderful about drinking in the afternoon. A not-too-cold pint, absolutely alone at the bar,” Anthony Bourdain — the greatest to ever do it — wrote in his book ‘Medium Raw’. He was, as always, right. There’s a particular kind of magic that happens in a great bar. Not the kind you can replicate by copying a drinks menu or flying in a bartender for the weekend. It comes from the cumulative history of a room: the way light falls across a particular counter, the crackle of a vinyl record turning over, the grammar of how people gather in a space that knows exactly what it is. India’s bar scene has been chasing that magic for years. Night Train might finally be the one that gets us there.

Launched by Arcade Social Club in partnership with Don Julio Tequila, Night Train is a new event series that promises to do something different from the bar takeover routine India has grown accustomed to in recent years. Instead of importing a brand name and a handful of cocktail recipes, Night Train aims to transplant the full sensory experience of some of the world’s best bars — the music, the atmosphere, and the philosophy — for one night only.

The series kicks off across Mumbai, Goa, and Bengaluru in March 2026 with Singapore’s Bar Bon Funk, a cocktail bar by Chef Keirin Buck and The Lo and Behold Group that has earned its reputation as one of Asia’s most thoughtful cocktail spaces since 2024. Bar Bon Funk is known for its intimate living-room warmth, vinyl-led programming, and a commitment to high-fidelity sound that borders on obsession. It’s an inspired choice for a debut — a place that has built its identity around the intangible and extremely difficult to fake concept of taste.

The tour will be at Mag St in Bandra on 6 March, at Juna in Goa on 7 March, and at Una Hacienda in Bengaluru 11 March. If Night Train delivers on its ambitions, the series will expand into a global circuit featuring bars from London, Stockholm, New York, Jakarta, and beyond in the future. Should the execution live up to that vision, it could quickly become one of the most compelling developments in Indian nightlife today.

Follow @arcadesocialclub on Instagram to learn more.

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